I would like to ask if anyone has hormone positive tumour her2 negative. And had chemo before having their lump removed, could you feel the lump shrinking during chemo?
I’ve had four ECs and three taxols and my 3cm lump feels exactly the same.
My nurse says it’s ok because we are removing the lump and the chemo is to protect my whole body from cancer. But I can’t help feeling a bit disheartened.
Everyone I know in ‘real life’ had their lump removed before chemo so I don’t have anyone to ask in my situation.
@mrshmbucks Hi there. I had the same diagnosis as you in April last year. I had a 4cm breast lump and a 5cm lymph node lump under my arm. I was given chemotherapy first to, hopefully, shrink the lymph node to reduce the risk of nerve damage and lymphoedema. I then had a lumpectomy and axillary clearance and radiotherapy. The axillary lymph node definitely shrank after 2 or 3 EC treatments. It went from 5cms to 1.5cms. The breast lump didn’t change at all. It was exactly the same size at operation as it was at the beginning The surgeon wasn’t at all bothered by this. The chemo had achieved it’s aim in shrinking the underarm lump. He said, as your nurse said that the chemo would also help to mop up any rogue cells around.
Try not to worry too much about it not shrinking. I said to the surgeon I was worried the breast lump hadn’t shrunk and he said not to worry as the surgery would remove it all.
Hi @mrshmbucks, I had 4 EC chemo for a 2.4cm tumour before surgery. It was 2.5cm when it was removed with mastectomy 6months later. Oncologist just shrugged her shoulders and said it doesnt always work. Not very comforting after subjecting ones body to hell! However, Im still here two years on. Wishing you well. X
@mrshmbucks Yes. They removed both lumps and got clear margins of normal tissue around both which indicates that all the cancer was removed. They took out 8 lymph nodes and just the one we knew about was cancerous. The others were normal.
The surgeon wasn’t at all bothered by this. The chemo had achieved it’s aim in shrinking the underarm lump. He said, as your nurse said that the chemo would also help to mop up any rogue cells around.