I'm surprised they are saying they can't decide if it is positive or negative. With the IHC test they're looking for what % of cells are stained, so it's not a yes/no scenario, rather a figure.  Those figures are then categorised as Negative, Weakly Positive/Equivocal, Positive.  If it came back Equivocal my belief was that they then ran the FISH test to get a better idea.  FISH is the definitive test, it looks to determine how many copies of the HER2 gene exist (again not a yes or no test). I think it's rare for FISH to come back indeterminate but if it did you would look to test another sample.

The chances of you getting an indeterminate on FISH testing of another sample are slim to nil so they should want to test again so they know what they're working with.

It's not like we're testing for flavours of ice cream here, if it's HER2+ it is very important that you get treatment specific to that.  If it's HER2- then giving you a cardiotoxic drug that will do nothing for your cancer isn't exactly a good idea.  I'm surprised they aren't more determined to get this sorted out.

I'm not looking forward to starting Herceptin admittedly, but at least I'm getting onto drugs that target my specific cancer now.

Really hope they sort this out soon for you.

LJx