This question has been playing on my mind a while now and it even puzzled my chemo nurse so I’m hoping someone might have an answer. I know you either receive neo adjuvant or adjuvant chemo, one being that you are treated before surgery and is used to shrink the tumour and the other is after surgery to destroy any rogue cells BUT I have had 2 ops and am having chemo now and then will have a mastectomy… so which one am I?
Oh boy! That’s a difficult one. However I asked my oncologist Wednesday why neo adjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy is exactly the same as one is to shrink a tumour/stop it spreading/make it easier to manage surgically and the other is to mop up any stray cells that may or may not be there. It would seem more obvious to have bigger doses or more of them with neo adjuvant. Her answer was that things are just not that clever yet and so everyone has a blanket treatment.
So with that in mind I guess you’re both or neither??? But whichever you’d have had the same chemo. Crazy!
Hi
Love your reply … its the same as hormone therapies like Tamox, arimidex and letrozole … they are used for 5/10 years as belt and braces treatment after primary dx …then if you are unlucky enough to get secondaries … they are used again to control the mets … so once again blanket treatment but they are powerful little pills and do their job very well !!
xxx