Are there any ladies out there who have had chemo first then surgery to be followed by radiotherapy as it seems most people have had surgery first. I was diagnosed with bc in March and my surgeon recomended chemo first to shrink my tumour before surgery. I finished my chemo at the end of July and have surgery next week. The good news is the chemo did it’s job and my surgeon has now said I will only need a WLE but with axillary node clearance which I am pleased about. He had told me I would need a mastectomy when first diagnosed although he hasn’t ruled it out if the path results don’t show a clear margin.
If there is any one who has had or is going through their treatment in the same order as I am it would be really good to hear from you about your experiences.
Hi SML.
I’m also having chemo first followed by surgery and then radiotherapy. I’m on the May chemo forum and most of them had their surgery first. My BC came up very quickly and was aggressive and big hence why they decided to do chemo first to shrink it. I’ve had 4 FEC and 2 doxetaxol so far with another 2 doxetaxol to go. My tumour has shrunk from 6.5 cm to 2 cm so it’s good to know the chemo is working. I’ve got to have a masectomy as after my biopsy my breast swelled even more and skin turned red which to e indicates infection. However surgeon thinks it may have been inflammatory so wants to take whole breast and skin to be cautious which is fine by me as the less chance of this reoccurring is good to me.
Hope your surgery goes well next week. X
I had chemo first then surgery and rads. I believe I had it this way round as my oncologist wanted to put me on Perjeta alongside herceptin and docetaxe from cycle 1. To be prescribed the perjeta must be seen to be working before they agree to fund the whole 18 cycles as its on the cancer drugs fund. They could see tiny flecks of white on the mri before I had my surgery after 6 cycles and my 3 tumours, although small were over a big area and were close to the skin so they advised me to have a mastectomy but once they did the pathology there was in fact no cancer present at all so I had a complete response which was reassuring. It was a bit freaky knowing I still had my tumours but at the same time I could feel it shrinking and my nodes were clear after a couple of cycles.
Hi everyone, I am on the April chemo thread, I also had chemo before surgery and seemed to be the only one, I had a WLE last Friday and was originally going to have my nipple removed, but after the scan etc surgeon decided to cut around it and stitch it back on!! Won’t know for another 2 weeks if they got clear margins so may end up having further surgery. I am 52 with 2 sons aged 23 and 25 and a husband, I run my own little business and have continued to work through chemo etc and up to the evening of my surgery! Have found the routine and normality worked for me, am off for a couple of weeks now and am quite bored already! Think it depends very much on what job you do and personal choice. I am also Her2+ and wondered if that was a reason why I had chemo first too?
Good luck ladies with your surgery and treatments!