Hormone inhibitors. To use or not.

Hi @PYM - I sent you a personal message.

Thanks Cath. Very true.

I don't know of any stat's after 5 years or 10 years on hormone suppression treatment. For me my decision was one of considering how important that part of the treatment was in terms of all the treatment I received. We all have different needs in terms of assurance and feeling we have done what we can. 

I do have a friend who had hormone positive bc at 40 and was recommended chemo, radium and  hormone treatment. She didn't finish chemo or radium. Probably did about 2/3 of both and refused the hormone treatment. At 50 she got bc again but in the other breast and it was a different bc altogether.

There are stories supporting very different approach to treatment but what is important is what you think for your treatment and your satisfaction that you have chosen the right treatment approach for you. 

Thank you @iserbrown for this link.

I know my own oncologist had looked carefully at a number of overseas studies in recommending Letrozole. I imagine others have too. Some of those studies compared outcomes of five years treatment with ten years. Unfortunately no one so far seems to have studied any comparisons between five and eight years, for example. 

Good questions

Regarding the research studies, I guess you could ask the oncologists what follow up happens if there isn't a recurrence after 5 years.  All I know is that I will be out of the public system very soon as I have reached the 5 year mark and no recurrence, although I am still to technically be on hormone blockers for another 10 months, as I started them after surgery, chemo, and radiation therapy, so that was around 10 months after my diagnosis.  I continued on with herceptin to complete 12 months of that targeted therapy.

It really isn't clear how they can follow up people after their initial 5 years on hormone blockers, and my understanding is that they are now recommending 10 years if the treatment included chemotherapy. 

Can anyone else throw any light on this subject for PYM. 
 
Who follows up those that have completed hormone therapy and no recurrence after 5 years? 

Who follows up those that declined hormone therapy and didn't have a recurrence after 5 years?

@Afraser, my comment was not related to you at all and you are obviously one of the rare lucky ones who went through minimum disruption to your regular life throughout active treatment and now the AIs.  Glad you have no regrets, nor do I.

Thank you for this info of your journey.