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
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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
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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!
Just thought I’d update this in case other women are in a similar position.
I’ve been told I should have chemo.
My oncotype was actually 23, not 24 but I would have been offered chemo for anything 21 and over I think. It was presented as a definite, rather than a borderline case where I could decide for myself if I wanted it or not. I guess I could still have refused, but it seemed fairly concrete that it was always recommended in cases like mine (pre menopausal and over 20 on the oncotype).
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Hi @orchid2
I am 34, with two young children a 2.5 year old and 1 year old. So I have found myself in a similar position to where you were. I had lumpectomy on 11 December 25 on similar cancer to yours. I got surgery results to say it is not in lymph nodes and they got good margin but I am currently waiting for my oncology appointment to decide whether chemo is necessary for me as they have sent it off for oncotype score. I’m dreading the results.
How are you now? How is treatment going for you? I am trying to get as much information as I can to prepare myself if it is for chemotherapy. But any advice would be greatly appreciated as I fear that due to my age it will be a real possibility.
Sending love 
Hi @holliet91 , I’m sorry to hear you’re in the same position and with two little ones as well. I hope you’ve got lots of family and friends around to help.
I think for younger women chemo is offered at lower oncotype scores (mine was 23).
I relied heavily on my mum during the 3 EC cycles, as I got bad nausea with that one so was then very weak as I wasn’t eating properly. I’m now on weekly Paclitaxel which causes me joint and muscle pain but at the moment it’s at an irritating but tolerable level rather than impacting too much on day to day life.
It’s hard, but I’d still choose the chemo even if it were harder than this as I want to know I’ve reduced my risk of recurrence as much as possible.
Hi @orchid2
Thank you for the reply. I’m sorry that you’ve had those side effects of the chemotherapy but like you say, it’s the better option to save the anxiety of a reoccurrence.
I’m still waiting on my oncotype score, they told me to expect a 3 week wait so I should know more next week. I’m feeling mixed about it all lnow as I totally agree that it feels like an insurance xx to have the chemotherapy albeit at quite a cost.
Have you managed to work through the treatment? Did the sickness relieve itself after a few days of the treatment?
sending love
Hi, sorry for the late reply. I’m self employed and was only working part time anyway, but I haven’t done much since starting chemo. I work with my mum so have handed most of it over to her. I don’t know if I’d have been able to work more if I’d been in a different job, but I think it would still have been a bit sporadic. It’s just hard with them little children too as it’s not like you could push yourself to get through the day at work and then spend all evening and weekends in bed, so I cut back on work in order to have capacity for my kids.