Chemo before surgery?

Hi Alison

I had chemo first. I had a breast ulcer, cancer that has broken through the skin surface and this was the best treatment for me. To give it its correct name it's known as neo-adjuvent treatment. Often given to try to shrink the tumour so it is easier to remove with clear margins.

Worked very well. I had 3 FEC followed by 3 Taxotere (Taxoterrible!) Then three weeks after finishing chemo I had a mastectomy and lymph node removal. No problems, but because of the chemo doing its job all the lymph nodes had turned to mush/scar tissue so no accurate pathology of them. I then went on to have a course of radiation.

Thinking back, I believe it worked better having chemo first. The three weeks break before mastectomy meant that I felt great going into surgery and I had already built up a rapport with my treatment team, so it wasn't the trauma that others had reported. I recovered from the mastectomy without the fear of chemo hanging over my head. Just a future course of radiotherapy which I had been told was a walk in the park compared to chemo and mastectomy (and it was!)

If I had to do it again I would still have chemo first.

With love

Joy K