Do you ABSOLUTELY have to get the radiation and or chemo?

laurissa said:

It is necessary I believe
There's stray cells that travel. Chemo will kill them throughout the body and radiation attacks them at the site. It did me good.

Necessary, Yes
If the cancer has spread to your lymph nodes, you need chemo to stop it from continuing thru your whole body. And, there are other reasons also to have chemo, your stage, grade, type of bc etc. And, you need radiation to kill any and all stray cancer cells left behind after your surgery. Several women on here that had recurrences didn't have radiation and the cancer came back, even though they had a mastectomy. So, I firmly believe that if your oncologist recommends chemo and/or rads, you should do everything possible to fight it from returning. Because if it did, wouldn't you always wonder..what if?

♠♣ Susie ♠♣

2Floridiansisters said:

Okay then, I better toughen up real quick
Thanks for the info, I will definitely go through the hell because going through this just once is all I ever want to deal with.

The more I learn the better I will be next week when I go back to the surgeon.

To Chemo or not to Chemo
I just got back from my oncologist to get the results of my OncotypeDX test. All signs had pointed to the need for only anti-hormone therapy until now. The OncotypeDX put me in the category of Intermediate Risk, so my doctor tells me I will have to make the decision as to whether to add chemo to my treatment plan.

I find it frustrating that I, as the least educated person in the room, has to make the decision that could have lifelong ramifications. I don't want to wimp out and not take the steps necessary to make this a once in a lifetime experience, but I sure don't want to go through chemo if there is no genuine benefit.

Anyone out there been in the place? I am so bummed out. I thought I had dodged the chemo bullet, now I have to make another huge decision without a 'recommendation' from my doctor.

I am Stage I IDC with no lymph node involvement; hormone receptor positive.

Thanks!

Skeezie said:

I don't understand your onc not giving you some
direction...explaining both the pros and cons of taking chemo. Maybe you should call your onc back and ask some questions about how much chemo would lower your risk, if it were the onc's decision what would they recommend for themselves or their wives (if it's a man). If you can't get an answer, I guess I would get a second opinion if it were me.

Keep us posted regarding your decision.

Hugs, Judy :-)

Thanks for responding!

Judy,
My doc gave me all the pros/cons, but my score on the OncotypeDX was right smack dab in the 'gray area'. She said a few points either way and she could confidently tell me I needed or did not need chemo; with my score its my call.
My chance of recurrence in 10 years with just hormone therapy is 12%; the chance of recurrence with chemo & hormone therapy would be 6-8%.
I guess its a case of weighing the cons of chemo with the pros of a 6% better chance of no recurrence, but I could sure use some help!! Thanks.
Chickadee

Chickadee1955 said:

To Chemo or not to Chemo
I just got back from my oncologist to get the results of my OncotypeDX test. All signs had pointed to the need for only anti-hormone therapy until now. The OncotypeDX put me in the category of Intermediate Risk, so my doctor tells me I will have to make the decision as to whether to add chemo to my treatment plan.

I find it frustrating that I, as the least educated person in the room, has to make the decision that could have lifelong ramifications. I don't want to wimp out and not take the steps necessary to make this a once in a lifetime experience, but I sure don't want to go through chemo if there is no genuine benefit.

Anyone out there been in the place? I am so bummed out. I thought I had dodged the chemo bullet, now I have to make another huge decision without a 'recommendation' from my doctor.

I am Stage I IDC with no lymph node involvement; hormone receptor positive.

Thanks!

Same row boat
Chickadee(one of my favorite little birds)
Ah..I'm with you.I'm stage I/II, er/pr pos, her2 neg and node neg which makes us good candidates for the onco test.Doc told me yesterday yes I'm going to have the test.(probably because I sent him a pithy email stating what his nurse told me about my "age).I'm hoping
to have a low number. They told me "you don't HAVE to do anything" but what would the risk be for me? I guess if I knew how to calculate those numbers for all of us I'd be a really wealthy person. I know there's a new type of radiation out there and near to me--one of only 2 places in TN that has it. Supposedly they've been able to retarget the beam(sounds like a sci fi movie line)so it doesn't hurt or hurts very little the surrounding tissue.
I refer to it as being cut, burned and possibly poisoned. Sounds nasty, but so does the
technical term. I think your doc left you in the dust and don't feel bad if you ask for your tests and papers and get a second opinion.Chemo is not on my list of things I want to
accomplish, but even with all the information garnered it's still a bridge we need to cross.
Although ultimately the decision is "ours" alone to make---trust me you will NEVER be on that bridge by yourself.

Chickadee1955 said:

Thanks for responding!

Judy,
My doc gave me all the pros/cons, but my score on the OncotypeDX was right smack dab in the 'gray area'. She said a few points either way and she could confidently tell me I needed or did not need chemo; with my score its my call.
My chance of recurrence in 10 years with just hormone therapy is 12%; the chance of recurrence with chemo & hormone therapy would be 6-8%.
I guess its a case of weighing the cons of chemo with the pros of a 6% better chance of no recurrence, but I could sure use some help!! Thanks.
Chickadee

Chickadee -
From the numbers your onc gave you, it looks like chemo would reduce your chance of recurrence by almost 50%. If I was betting on my odds of ever having to do this again, that would be pretty impressive to me. I wasn't in your same boat with the oncotype testing but was when it came to deciding whether to have radiation. I was in a category that was "gray." Some of the ladies on this site asked me why I would not want to do it if it would improve the odds of not having a recurrence. And my oncologist and radiologisr both agreed it was the best thing to do.

Chemo vs. chemo is a tough area to be "gray" and have to make a personal decision - I agree with the others and would probably ask for a second opinion. You can still treat with whatever doctor you choose but it might give you more information to make this tough call.

Chris

Rague said:

"You" don't have to have anything!
"You" do not have to have anything or do anything.

All breast cancers are not the same. There are different types that have different protocols for treatment and different prognosis for survival.

For me - there was no hope of "just removing the crud" and coming back in a year. I had gone from nothing known to big involvement with no margins within 4 weeks - but then that's Imflammatory Breast Cancer. Surgeon would not do surgery until after the first Chemo batch to shrink and try to get margins (which did happen). So I did A/C followed by mod.rad. mastectomy, followed by Taxol and rads. Will be on Femara for 5 years.

"Torture" - not to me - times were hard but my Dr's were not torturing me - they were giving me the 'arms' (what my body needed) to fight to live.

It's up to you how hard YOU want to fight the beast.

I agree with Rague.
To me "torture" is dying of bc when possibly I didn't have to if I had done everything possible to fight it. Too late then to say "If only..." Chemo's not fun, but it's doable. I'll be all those women who died before chemo was around wouldn't be having a tough time making a decision of whether or not to get chemo. Removing the crud and sewing you back up is what was done prior to chemo, oh, I forgot, in the 60's and 70's they had "Kobalt" which didn't do anything either. I thank God everyday for the lifesaving treatments I was able to have, and hopefuly down the road they will have better and better treatments and even a CURE! But for now, there is chemo and rads.

You can do this...and afterwards is the wonderful dance with NED.

Keep us posted.

Hugs, Judy :-)

ms.sunshine said:

It depends on the cancer
It depends on the cancer that you have, stage,etc.. but this is what my doc told me. It is impossible for the surgeon to remove every cancer cell when he removes the tumor. Cancer cells can travel or branch off. Even with a mastectomy there maybe cancer cells left behind on the tissue that is on the muscle wall. Before cancer shows up on any test there has to be 1 billion cells clustered together, that is why it is impossible for a surgeon to remove all. It only takes 1 cell to survive and regrow. That is why doctors want to do everything possible to rid cancer from your body.
Do everything possible you don't want any regrets in your future.

Very Helpful response
Ms. Sunshine (great post-name) your response is very helpful and right to the point. I have a friend who is 15 years BC Free! I thought it was interesting that no follow-up treatment was recommended by her onc's. However, she did have a mastectomy, so maybe at that point in time they were not recommending tamoxifen or arimidex.