Is there anyone who has undergone chemo, found the lump has shrunk completely and all you were left with was scar tissue/thickening?
Did you then go ahead with surgery?
Or did you discuss not having surgery?
What was the response of the consultant/hospital team?
What happened next?
Thanks for any comments/feedback
Hello
After chemo my lump had shrunk and didn’t show up on the last MRI scan and all I could feel was thickening. I wasn’t offered the option of not having surgery as no one could be sure that the cancer had completely gone. Given the choice I would have gone ahead with surgery anyway just to be sure.
The WLE took away about 9mm of margins which didn’t show up on the scan.
Hope this helps
Could you explain the last sentence, I’m new to all this…
WLE? 9mm of margins?
Thanks 
Hi,
My experience goes back a long way. In 1990 I had a 5cm tumour. This was treated with Chemotherapy and 35 sessions of radiotherapy. The tumour had totally shrunk. I think back then it was more common not to have surgery when the tumour had shrunk totally. I was ok for 5 years - then I had a new tumour in the same breast. It was very difficult to diagnose for several weeks because I had so much damage from the radiotherapy that my breast was solid. That tumour spread thru the whole breast and 6mths after the mastectomy it came back in the skin which had to be dealt with drastically. After removing everything down to the rib cage I had a large slice taken from my stomach to cover it. I think you can see which way I would favour. Besides there are quite a few tales on the forums of women who had the surgery and other areas in the breast were found to be cancerous which were not showing from the mammograms.
You should discuss this with your team because obviously each person is different. I am sure that today in the same circumstances I would have been told surgery was necessary.
Dawn
xx
Hello
Explaination:
WLE - wide local excision - or lumpectomy, basically surgery to remove the tumour and surrounding tissue rather than a mastectomy.
Margins not sure but clear margins mean that the area where the tumour was has gone. So when I had the op they removed 9mm of tissue to ensure no cancerous material remained.
Lynn
Thank you Dawn and Lynn
My mind is a whirl now that I am getting closer to the op.
Hello there,
I also had neoadjuvant chemo, with a complete response, but not having surgery was never mentioned. There could still be cancerous cells that do not show up on any diagnostic tool which might just start growing again. As it was the post op pathology report said there were none left. Still I wouldn’t have taken the chance, nor would have my oncologists!!