It has been recommended I have FEC-T combination (3 of FEC & 3 of T)at 3 week intervals. Benefits of this are around 9%, ie 91% don’t benefit from this which is the hard thing to deal with. I am terrified as live on my own & am already finding things so difficult to cope with having already had 2 ops & now have to have mastectomy.
Any one had experience of above combination & side effects & how to get through it?
Hi Phloxylady,
I have had both FEC and Tax as separate regimes. It was no bed of roses either time, but I found both do-able. Different people have different SEs - for me, FEC made me more nauseous (but I know that not everyone finds this a problem, and it was only for a few hours on the day of treatment), and tax did not cause any nausea (I did take all the required steroids and anti-sickness tablets)but made me prone to muscle aches and pains, and also I defintely felt more tired on tax. I managed to keep working through both. I can understand you being concerned about living alone - but the thing to remember is that you will be given phone numbers and instructions about what to do if you are worried. I think that we all find our own methods for coping, for me it was a hot water bottle (absolutely great for the tax aches), and on the days I felt ok, getting out for a bit, even if only down to the paper shop (about 5 mins away). I think you have to just listen to your body - it will tell you what it needs. Hope all goes well.
I am having that treatment, had FEC 3 2 weeks ago, due 1st Tax next thursday. I had some nausea, a small amount of vomiting and was tired a few days. I do all the housework etc in this house, although DD lives with me, was able to keep clean clothes, fridge well stocked. Made it to all appointments etc alone, I’m a bit nervous as to what Tax will bring so I’ll make sure stuf topped up sorted prior to first dose.
Hi Phloxylady
I just wanted to comment on the 9% benefit of this chemo regime, and your comment that it means that 91% don’t benefit. Is that how your onc explained it to you, or your interpretation of what 9% benefit means? I would be interested in others opinions, but I’m virtually certain it doesn’t mean that. I think it means the chemo will add 9% to the survival statistics for your diagnosis, which might already be very high (70 or 80% for early stage) - I really don’t think it means only 9% will benefit from chemo. Maybe you should have a chat to your BCN about this, because I suspect you are underestimating the effectiveness of chemo, and you may feel a whole lot better about it if the figures are explained properly to you.
finty xx
Hi
I agree with Finty. The 9% will be on top of the benefit you will get from surgery and any hormone or heceptin treatments. Definitely get your BCN to explain it to you so you can ask questions. Debx
Hi Phloxlady, I agree with the others - they normally mean it gives you a 9% better chance than you already had (which is good).
Always difficult to find accurate statistics, because a heck of a lot of the statistics are based on old research with older treatments that weren’t as good…or don’t include some of the brand new findings (like if you have a good social network and lots of support, it almost doubles your chances of long term survival (big study done by the Vanderbilt group recently)).
Ann x
Hi,
my oncologist explained the stats as being that, for eg, 80% of women with a certain diagnosis would still be alive in 10 years if they had surgery and nothing else, and then a further amount (9% in yourcase it seems) would then also be alive becauseof chemotherapy benefit. This doesnt mean that the chemo didnt work for 91% of people, its morehelpful to think that 80% didnt need chemoin the first place but that at the moment doctors cannot tell which ladies do. If you think of it like that, the 9% actually equates into a big percentage of success in the people who actually needed it.
I had fec-t last year, was 36 with two sons aged 4 and 2. Parts were hard but more than half the time i could function normally within reason. So basically it was about 6 weeks feeling crappy in total, 3 weeks feeling a bit rubbish in total and 9 weeks feeling ok-ish. And that was last year. This year i am just pleased i hit it with everything possible last year!
Vickie
I agree with the others about the 9% - it gives you that much more benefit from the treatment. It’s a good figure - when it gets down to 2% or 3% it becomes more of a choice as to whether to have it or not as you have to decide if the side effeccts outweigh the benefit. My chemo benefit was 35%, so no choice!
I’m having FEC-T as are a lot of the women on here. I’ve had two FECs and have number 3 on Wednesday. It’s all do-able with the right meds and is a very well trodden path. They’ll give you lots of pills to take after your first one then you need to tell them of any SEs and they’ll adjust your meds accordingly. It’s really just the first one that’s a bit of an unknown as we all react differently.
Keep talking to us lot - you’ll get so much support and also an awful lot of laughs. And also call the BCC helpline for a chat as they’re brilliant.
Jane xxx
HI there, I had FEC-T last year. I must say I did need quite a lot of help in week one of chemo - meals, shopping etc. Days 3-6 were the worst for me. I also found I needed company - usually wquite happy to spend time alone but as treatment wore on just felt less like the strong independent me. So in the end I arranged for someone to come to the house each lunchtime and each evening of week one…tough to ask my friends for this but you know what people love to help and its time limited, and we grew closer because of it.
best wishes and really we all react so differently you won’t know how you will be until you start I’m afraid!
best wishes Nicola
Hi,
I had six cycles of a chemotherapy known as FEC 75 (which I was told is fairly aggressive), followed by conventional radiotherapy to the mastectomy site, lymph nodes and neck, followed by Cyberknife rads for skull mets, followed by letrozole and bondronat. To be honest, I have had side-effects with everything (even on letrozole and bondronat I feel washed out and achey) , but if I needed to, I would take them all again like a shot, because I want to keep going for as long as possible.
I personally don’t take too much notice of statistics. The only stat that counts as far as I’m concerned is that without treatment, I would have zero chance of survival.
During chemo I found that days 3-7 were the worst - but usually by the 15th day I was almost back to normal (although as the chemo progressed, I found the recovery took longer). I think if you are on your own, you will need to do a bit of forward planning, because there will be days when you feel very tired. I would suggest that if you have a freezer, you make a few different soups and pop them in. That way when you don’t feel up to cooking, and don’t have much appetite, you will have something ready to heat up. You could also get a flask, so that you can have a hot drink to hand without having to keep making it. I found that I had a constant metallic taste in my mouth, so I tended to drink a lot of squash/juice - so again get yourself a large jug, fill it with ice-cubes and squash, so that as it melts you will have a cool drink, without having to get up and down all the time.
Best wishes for your treatment.
Dear Phloxlady. You may be like me and have only a few side effects - it was after chemo (4xfec,4xtax} that my aches and pains set in - my body felt like an eighty year olds and it took about 12mths to wear off! The chemo itself I found very doable. I had to go on a drugs trial to get taxol as it wasn’t available for primary BC in this country in 2004. I was told at the time it would probably only make 1-2% difference to my survival stats (which was 35%) but even 1 -2% adds up to quite a lot of us, and I do believe taxol is the reason I’m still here and ned. Good luck xx