After Masectomy and Chemo complete

MEwarrior
MEwarrior Member Posts: 3
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
Hello

I am wandering - I had double masectomy and 8 chemo treatemets. First was the coctail one and second was taxotere. I am going on 7weeks with Tamoxfen.My question is - Is it normal not to have a petscan or something after this is completed.Is it normal just to have the blood work done. and do they do a petscan again to check to make sure it is gone? Still a little scared. My Doc uses the terminology not the standard of care. Any information would be appreciated. thank you :)

Comments

  • TraciInLA
    TraciInLA Member Posts: 1,994 Member
    #2
    Standard of care
    Hi, Warrior -

    I can relate to being scared about all this -- one of the most stressful parts of having breast cancer is that no test exists that they can give us after treatment to tell us with 100% certainty that we're cancer-free.

    Remember that the purpose of chemo given after surgery (which it sounds like is what you had) is to kill microscopic cancer cells that may be floating around in our body. So they wouldn't be detectable by any kind of scan, either before or after chemo.

    For exactly these reasons, none of my doctors ordered any scans for me after completing treatment -- I see my oncologist every 3 months, and he tests my tumor markers (though not all oncologists agree with this). And, because I still have my girls, I'll have mammograms every 6 months.

    My oncologist does a very thorough exam, and I'm vigilant about keeping a log and reporting to him any changes in my health -- I trust him that this is the best approach for me, though it's easy to get scared about the uncertainty of it all, that's for sure.

    Traci
  • MEwarrior
    MEwarrior Member Posts: 3
    #3
    TraciInLA said:

    Standard of care
    Hi, Warrior -

    I can relate to being scared about all this -- one of the most stressful parts of having breast cancer is that no test exists that they can give us after treatment to tell us with 100% certainty that we're cancer-free.

    Remember that the purpose of chemo given after surgery (which it sounds like is what you had) is to kill microscopic cancer cells that may be floating around in our body. So they wouldn't be detectable by any kind of scan, either before or after chemo.

    For exactly these reasons, none of my doctors ordered any scans for me after completing treatment -- I see my oncologist every 3 months, and he tests my tumor markers (though not all oncologists agree with this). And, because I still have my girls, I'll have mammograms every 6 months.

    My oncologist does a very thorough exam, and I'm vigilant about keeping a log and reporting to him any changes in my health -- I trust him that this is the best approach for me, though it's easy to get scared about the uncertainty of it all, that's for sure.

    Traci

    Thank You
    Thank you...Thank You !! I do trust my oncolugist also. Just wanted to check on him a lttle. ME. thank you again... Traciin LA
  • Christine Louise
    Christine Louise Member Posts: 426 Member
    #4
    Another PET thread to read
    MEwarrior, there is another recent thread entitled "Should a Pet be done after chemo" that has some discussion about this question. Currently, it's on the first page here.

    After bi-lateral mast. and chemo, I will not have a PET either, for the reasons Traci described. Being told I have No Evidence of Disease (NED) is the closest I can get to having "proof" I'm disease-free. Best wishes to you!

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