chemo or no with micro metastasis
Recent mastectomy with aesthetic closure, one mini slash micro metastasis in one lymph node, hormone positive at 90% and no chemo? Only a 2% chance of it adding anything to my 10 year rates? I keep re...
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Hi COnfetti I hope all went well - I was diagnosed last Dec and had a similar dilemma with stage II Early invasive breast cancer which was HER negative and PR and ER positive. I had a lumpectomy and one sentinel node removed which had about 7 micro metastasis which were all encapsulated . The tumour was a bit bigger than expected but margins were clear. After being told initially by the surgeon I would only need radiation and hormone blockers there was then some discussion at the multi disciplinary team meeting about chemo. It took 5 weeks to get an appointment with my onc ( this was good i was told as it possibly meant I wasn't considered a super high risk). FInally got there and he said on reflection he didn't think it would add much, about3% to my overall 10 year survival chances.
I came away confused as I had done quite a lot of research from good medical and scientific websites and it seemed that when nodes were involved chemo was the go.
I managed to see another onc - and he mentioned the Endo- predict test which is a genomic test and gives a clear score on high or low risk. It is also a lot cheaper than Oncotype but still expensive, about $3000 but I figured peace of mind was worth that,
To everyone's surprise I came back as high risk - only just over the marker of 3.4 but i was 3.8 and therefore at higher risk than my onc thought. We agreed I would try chemo as i really wanted to reduce my risk of recurrence and see how it went. I had three treatments and then had a pulmonary embolism ( not fun) and so we agreed to cease chemo, which can be the cause of embolisms. I then had radiation therapy and am now on letrozole hormone blocker.
I am still not sure the chemo was a great idea actually as even though I was " high risk" it was still pretty low on the graph and I now think that there is a lot they don't know about the long term effects of chemo on the body and mind in terms of cognition and possible accelerated ageing. So if you didn't have it I wouldn't fret as it may have been of minimal use for you. I do think that blocking the Estrogen is the key to preventing the recurrence of this type of cancer plus staying as healthy as possible. I am trying to lose weight as I am about 20 kg more than I should be and this will not only make me feel better and stay healthy it has been shown to be another factor in reducing a risk of cancer. I also encourage you to have a positive mindset and put your focus on living your life to the full. There have been studies that show that this can also help to keep us well.
I came away confused as I had done quite a lot of research from good medical and scientific websites and it seemed that when nodes were involved chemo was the go.
I managed to see another onc - and he mentioned the Endo- predict test which is a genomic test and gives a clear score on high or low risk. It is also a lot cheaper than Oncotype but still expensive, about $3000 but I figured peace of mind was worth that,
To everyone's surprise I came back as high risk - only just over the marker of 3.4 but i was 3.8 and therefore at higher risk than my onc thought. We agreed I would try chemo as i really wanted to reduce my risk of recurrence and see how it went. I had three treatments and then had a pulmonary embolism ( not fun) and so we agreed to cease chemo, which can be the cause of embolisms. I then had radiation therapy and am now on letrozole hormone blocker.
I am still not sure the chemo was a great idea actually as even though I was " high risk" it was still pretty low on the graph and I now think that there is a lot they don't know about the long term effects of chemo on the body and mind in terms of cognition and possible accelerated ageing. So if you didn't have it I wouldn't fret as it may have been of minimal use for you. I do think that blocking the Estrogen is the key to preventing the recurrence of this type of cancer plus staying as healthy as possible. I am trying to lose weight as I am about 20 kg more than I should be and this will not only make me feel better and stay healthy it has been shown to be another factor in reducing a risk of cancer. I also encourage you to have a positive mindset and put your focus on living your life to the full. There have been studies that show that this can also help to keep us well.