Hi, just wondering if anyone has been in a similar position and can advise if they were offered chemo or not.
I’m 35, ER8, PR8, HER-, Ki67 15%
Cancer was 22mm invasive, plus 35mm DCIS behind it. No nodes.
I’ve bene told my oncotype is 24 but I haven’t seen the oncologist yet. Am I likely to be offered chemo?
On Predict 2.2 my chemo benefit is 4.9% but on the newer on it’s 2.3%
Edited to add: I’ve got two children, age 5 and 3. The 5 year old is autistic and heavily dependent on me to keep her calm and settled. I’m worried how she’ll cope if I’m really ill on chemo, but I’m also worried about recurrence at I’m only 35 so there’s hopefully at least 40 years ahead of me, and it looks like oestrogen positive cancer can recur a long time later
4 Likes
Hi @orchid2 , welcome to the forum. I’m sorry you are going through this.
I had similar size tumour with the same characteristics: ER8, PR8 and HER2- (but no Dcis). I’m older than you at 46 but my oncotype was 29 and I was offered chemo. I think an oncotype over 15 is seen to have benefits in premenopausal women.
My children were a bit older but I also have an autistic son and I know it’s worrying when you have to think about their care. I found it generally manageable. The first 4 cycles of chemo were the toughest and my partner had to step up with the care! My aside from that I could manage most of my day to day things (with the help of ready meals).
Good luck xx
It seems like within the past year some younger folks are being offered an AI plus ovarian suppression instead of chemo. Or maybe as an alternative. At any rate with your oncotype score and age chemo should be on the table according to the Taylor Study although they may tell you another good choice is aggressive endocrine therapy.
Thank you, I’m glad the chemo didn’t completely stop you from doing things. It’s so hard to way up the choices when people can react differently! I want to go to my oncologist appointment at much info and questions as possible, so I appreciate your reply
Thanks. It looks interesting about the ovarian suppression, but potentially still an extremely unpleasant treatment! There’s osteoporosis and dementia in my family history so I need to ask about the potential for increasing those risks if I’m offered ovarian suppression 
it’s all just as endless round of terrible choices!
Endocrine therapy is part of the accepted protocol for treatment. Sure you can refuse it but you will be upping your chances of a recurrence by 50% and if it’s a distance recurrence you’re stage 4 and uncurable. So it will be either tamoxifen or ovarian suppression. If it’s tamoxifen I’m pretty sure they’d want you to do chemo. You might be able to avoid chemo with ovarian suppression though since I’m seeing some people now on-line doing just that. But yes, it’s nothing but terrible choices once diagnosed with cancer. I’ve done well with endocrine therapy though so it is quite possible.
I’ve been given chemo plus ovarian suppression and tamoxifen. They are definitely taking a ‘belt and braces’ approach.
Definitely good to be prepared before your oncologist appointment. I was a bit blindsided at mine. The initial pathology looked good and I thought I was going to be given some tablets and waved off to radiotherapy but the oncotype results (only saw them at my appointment) plus tumour grade had other plans!