Forum Discussion
To chemo or not to chemo
Hi there, any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
My early breast cancer is: no node involvement, no blood / vascular involvement detected, HER2 negative. I've had a complete single mastectomy. The invasive mass was 10mm, grade 3. But there were also 3 non-invasive, (grade 2 or lower / DCIS) masses of ~5mm size. I have smaller, dense boobs - so they took the whole thing.
Now, I've been told that my 10 yr prognosis with hormone therapy is 83-88% depending on how they describe the mass - which as you see - didn't fit neatly into categories. Chemo would only add 2-3% to that - maybe. Whereas there are all sorts of short, medium & long term potential risks with chemo. So my initial gut reaction was - hell no. The oncologist says I'm really 'on the fence' as to if chemo is worth it at all. She's left it up to me. I'm pretty sure I'd rather invest in nurturing my body - you know, fitness, good food and stress management, which could equal the 2-3% benefit anyway. I know there's no guarantees either way. Anyone been in similar situation??
My early breast cancer is: no node involvement, no blood / vascular involvement detected, HER2 negative. I've had a complete single mastectomy. The invasive mass was 10mm, grade 3. But there were also 3 non-invasive, (grade 2 or lower / DCIS) masses of ~5mm size. I have smaller, dense boobs - so they took the whole thing.
Now, I've been told that my 10 yr prognosis with hormone therapy is 83-88% depending on how they describe the mass - which as you see - didn't fit neatly into categories. Chemo would only add 2-3% to that - maybe. Whereas there are all sorts of short, medium & long term potential risks with chemo. So my initial gut reaction was - hell no. The oncologist says I'm really 'on the fence' as to if chemo is worth it at all. She's left it up to me. I'm pretty sure I'd rather invest in nurturing my body - you know, fitness, good food and stress management, which could equal the 2-3% benefit anyway. I know there's no guarantees either way. Anyone been in similar situation??
36 Replies
- Nadi you do raise a good point and agree having had a recurrence i felt it was the only thing i could do to make sure it was gone. The other thing is im only ER+ so the Her2 factor would certainly weigh in on my decision. X
- Before I decided, another factor for me was how I might feel if I didn't do chemo and then had a recurrence. I know I would have found it hard to accept that there was something I could have done but chose not to. But then my onc pushed chemo as I was HER2 positive. Good luck with your decision.
- @CellyK - I can see others have come on. Yes there are always options, but are they suitable to your diagnosis is the question. Take care
- @CellyK, I like you was offered chemo but told that it would not be of much benefit. I was also offered genome testing where breast tissue is sent to america to rate % chance of recurrence. I turned that down too. I was stage 2, grade 1, 2.7cm tumor with benign satellite. I had mastectomy with immediate silicon implant. Eo+, PR+, Her2-, am on Tamoxifen for however many years. Just finished 1st year, all scans clear. Only you can decide what is right for you. If in doubt write up a list of pros and cons to see it in black and white, go with your gut instinct. Wishing you all the best with your decision. Xx Cath
- Here are some current trials. I think the immunotherapy trials are only for metastatic disease. But there are others that may be suitable.
https://www.anzbctg.org/mobile/clinical-trials - @primek I'll certainly ask about it. I had assumed they would've mentioned all options by now... but we know what assuming does!
- Wondering if any immunotherapy trials you might be able to go on which have much less issues but might improve stats.
- @iserbrown Hi,
I'll be having hormone therapy - tamoxafin since I'm pre-menopause. That was given about a 5-7% contribution to my long term survivorship - which I think is worthwhile. Radiotherapy is not needed - because there are no targets left. Other than that I have no idea what other options there would be - neither my surgeon or oncologist has mentioned anything else. If there's something else, let me know. - Have you discussed other treatment options?
- Yeah, that's basically what the onco said. She also said "I can't guarantee it will be a benefit to you - but I can guarantee you'll have long term toxicity from chemo." ...so it's pretty hard to like the idea. What a shock, I went in there very naive - thinking chemo - especially early - was basically a cure. I hadn't heard about all the long term effects until she told me. Now I'm trying to absorb a complete change of perspective, while trying to make a decision. Bleh!
