Hi your oncologist and/or surgeon should be able to tell you the treatment timeline for you. Alternatively, there should be a breast care nurse available who can tell you this, who you could either ring and ask or arrange to talk to next tme you are in for treatment.. A lot depends on what your cancer is receptive to(eg estrogen or progesterone hormone, or Her2), and where you are in the process. If you have been having neoadjuvant chemo, they may not know what they plan to do next until they have assessed what has happened to the tumor. Also, sometimes things get forgotten, and it is important to ask them about taxamifen and Aromase Inhibitors if you are hormonal receptive and have not been put onto this or told when you will. If they have not told you whether or not you are hormone receptive, this would be a good question to ask first.
I assume you are ERpos and/or PRpos and HER2neg because you have not had a Herceptin or Perjeta or other Targetted therapies for HER2pos (ie came up with 0,1+ or 2+ on the HER2test), and because you expect to have Tamaxifen. (I assume you know that if ou are ERneg and PRneg, you will not be given Tamaxifen.
Here are some of the common treatment timelines: A If they think it best to try to treat or shrink the cancer before surgery .....1) Diagnosis, 2) Neoadjuvant (ie before surgery) chemo which may or may not include Tamaxifen or Aromase Inhibitors. 3)Reassessment of tumor size and stage 4) Surgery options: Lumpectomy plus chemo plus radiotherapy OR Mastectomy Or no surgery 5) Hormone treatment AI or Tamaxifen started for hormone-positive cancers , with or without adjuvant chemotherapy 6) Targeted therapy started for HER2pos tumors with or without adjuvant chemotherapy
B) If they decide to do surgery without neoadjuvant treatment, you start the process at 4)
Never feel afraid to ask questions. The medical people may seem busy and important, but you are the reason they are there, you are the consumer, and you have a right to ask questions and get good answers whenever you need them.
best wishes