Forum Discussion
AllyJay
5 years agoMember
I was diagnosed with grade 3..Stage 3...triple positive...multifocal (more than one lump) and node involvement on the left side. So called "abnormal geography" on the right. Due to a preexisting medical condition, I was unable to have radiation, so all I had in my bag of tricks was chemo, surgery then hormone blockers for at least ten years. I had chemo first, AC X 4 followed by Paclitaxel X 12 and Herceptin for just under a year. Chemo (but not the herceptin) finished in April 2017. Surgery which was bilateral mastectomy plus full axillary clearance on the left and sentinel node on the right. Pathology showed a 100% pathological response, with no live cancer cells found in either the breasts or nodes, only the (quote) "empty tumour beds". Some people have no response, in which case the tumour would probably have grown in the interim, some have a limited response, where perhaps it may have stayed the same but not grown,others have a partial response with some small areas of cancer still left and others are more fortunate, as I was. This does not guarantee that some cancer cells might be lurking elsewhere, as yet undetected, or in a dormant state, and may yet return. For me, I'm still NED...No Evidence of Disease.