Do I choose surgery or chemo first?
I posted my first discussion last week and now I have a bit more information I thought I would give you an update. I have Hormone Receptor (HR) Oestrogen (ER+PR+)HER2. I was booked in for a lumpecto...
Forum Discussion
Hi @JoB,
LIke many of the other women here, I too had chemo first and am about to have my last one before surgery in a month. My tumour was HER2+ but negative for progesterone and oestrogen. I too was booked for surgery first but once the pathology came in, the recommendation was to do chemo first to see how the tumour and node responded and to see if they shrunk to reduce the size of the operation. I am pleased to report that clinically they have quite significantly and this is the advantage of the chemo first as you see if it and the Herceptin affects the tumour and hence you can assume it will also attack any circulating tumour cells - the ones that do cause the problems with the potential to turn into metastasis. My surgeon did say he would remove the tumour and node first if I really felt I couldn't cope with knowing they were there but I decided I was ok with this. If you really don't feel you can cope psychologically with the tumour being there then that it is perfectly reasonable to go with the surgery first. All the best.
LIke many of the other women here, I too had chemo first and am about to have my last one before surgery in a month. My tumour was HER2+ but negative for progesterone and oestrogen. I too was booked for surgery first but once the pathology came in, the recommendation was to do chemo first to see how the tumour and node responded and to see if they shrunk to reduce the size of the operation. I am pleased to report that clinically they have quite significantly and this is the advantage of the chemo first as you see if it and the Herceptin affects the tumour and hence you can assume it will also attack any circulating tumour cells - the ones that do cause the problems with the potential to turn into metastasis. My surgeon did say he would remove the tumour and node first if I really felt I couldn't cope with knowing they were there but I decided I was ok with this. If you really don't feel you can cope psychologically with the tumour being there then that it is perfectly reasonable to go with the surgery first. All the best.