Chemo or no chemo? - help

rodripa9 said:

We're going through the same dilema
Hi 4slurpee. I sent a discussion board out exactly like this about a week ago for my sister. She has your exact same stats and had an Oncotype score of 22. Today was her first treatment and happy to say she is doing well. At first I told her don't do it, it's too invasive, the side effects, etc. But then I got on this site and started hearing everyone else's stories and did further research. The Oncotype test was validated at 11-25 for the middle range, which if you look at it like that my sister was at the higher end of the scale as is your score. Not the 31 that's recommended now. My sister's doctor recommended 4 treatments of Taxotere and Cytoxan which will be given every 3 weeks. The side effects will be controlled with an assorment of medications, but hair loss seems to be inevitable. So what I told my sister (which by the way is a single, working mother of 2 teenage children) is that I'd rather see my sister without hair then to not have a sister at all in 5 to ten years. I don't want the what ifs to haunt her or myself. She lives by herself in FL and I was able to come down for her 1st treatment today, but the next 3 she will do on her own. She also had a port inserted into her chest a week ago so that the chemo drugs and other medicines will be given through there. That pain was bad the first night, but she's fine now. A real trooper considering she has no tolerance for pain. This weekend we will assess side effects, fatigue, etc. I'll keep you posted. She wants me to tell you that our prayers are with you in this difficult decission. We completely understand.

rodripa9....
So glad that you made it down to be with your sister and everything went well. She is very lucky to have you!! Keep us posted and I will continue to keep her in my prayers. Pammy

JCricket said:

I suggest you ask the
I suggest you ask the opinion of 2 more different oncologist and then you decide. You have to choose an oncologist which you TRUST. It will make a lot of difference. I really hope you get well 100 percent and be free of serious illness from now on. The fear of recurrence is experienced by all cancer patients no matter how early the disease was caught. You are not alone. PRAY, PRAY PRAY and ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit(if you are a Christian).

It's amazing how different
It's amazing how different all our treatments can be when we have similar cancers. I had stage IIb cancer some lymph node involvement. I was given chemo before surgery to shrink my tumor which was 5cm. Did they suggest a BRCA test? I am BRCA 2 positive (BRCA is the breast cancer gene) I think that can change your descisons on whether or not to have chemo. I had a complete response to chemo it totally shrunk my tumor. I pretty much just had scar tissue when they did my surgery.