Very disappointed that my lump has not shrunk as much as I would have liked. I have had 5 x FEC and my ultrasound last week revealed that it has only shrunk by 1.5cm and is still 2.5 cm. I am surprised that it was that big to be honest, they told me it was 3cm to start with.
Was I given misleading information so as not to worry me in the first place? If so it makes me a little angry, I would much rather be told the truth.
Is this disastrous? It seems to have stopped responding to the FEC. Argh.
Please feel free to contact our helpline for a chat with one of our specialist nurses, the helpline number is 0808 800 6000 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm and Sat 9am-2pm.
Best wishes
Sam
Moderator
Breast Cancer Care
I had a similar experience to you in that after 6 FEC my tumour had only shrunk by 1.5 cm from 12 cm to 10.5cm and I fell pretty upset about it too - although post op they have told my that the consistency changed and the tumour did not “feel the same”. Not sure what that means. I am now post mastectomy and on 6 x Taxotere followed by rads.
Whilst I cannot get satisfactory answers from my oncologist I fell that they thought when first diagnosed that I probably had not been checking myself regulalry and they thought that I had a well established slow growing tumour rather than the very aggressive tumour that I did have.
Anyway Taxotere is supposed to be very good - I hope that it is as I am struggling with the side effects.
I do feel it is very difficult for the Doctors as they never seem to know exactly what they are dealing with and everybody’s tumours react differently to the treatment - All I can say is that your tumour has shrunk a bit, but like me not as much as you had hoped. I would talk to your oncologist about options as there seem to be so many things to try.
Keep your chin up and remember that there are loads of other treatments that could work - to be honest FEC always seem to be where they start… but that has only been my experience!
I have a scan this Wednesday coming to check on shrinkage of my tumour - I am keeping everything crossed. At present I have had 3 AC chemo but they said if it has not responded they will change me onto something else. They also told me not to be too disapointed if it has not shrunk that much but thats easier said than done I guess.
Phardy - what are the side effects of Taxotere that you are finding difficult?
I think that as I am presurgery, the specialists were hoping that they could shrink the tumour to a small enough size to remove without too much invasive surgery. I have a very very small bust, about 34A so to remove a 2.5cm tumour would mean a mastectomy which, because they consider me fairly young (I’m 47 so flattered by that!) they were hoping would not be necessary.
However the good news is that the ultrasound showed no spread to my lymph nodes and I have a CT scan next week to further investigate.
I’m keeping everything crossed for this, I also have a small lung lesion which I am hoping has not shrunk as it will mean this is not a metastases
I can’t help but feel disappointed after months of chemo which I am not finding too hard, but certainly not easy, I was hoping for much more impact on the tumour.
I have/had Inflammatory BC which tends blocks the breast lymphs (in layers) rather than a lump. This type of cancer is very aggressive. I was originally supposed to have 6 x FEC followed by 6 X Tax.
The FEC seemed to reduce some of the swelling associated with IBC but the cancer had reached the lymphs under my arm by the time I began Tax.
As I said I had a really good response to the Tax, it quickly reduced the gland under my arm, and so my onc upped it to 8 cycles. My body tolerated it quite well, others do have an awful time on it, we are all so different.
I did have achy joints, especially in the mornings. You do need to take a lot more steroids, so the weight piles on! Also I had a sore mouth for the first couple of days, my tongue seemed to swell up. I kept my toe nails painted with black nail polish (tax is light sensitive) and had my fingernails french polished with gel polish before starting and kept it up through treatment so didn’t lose any nails.
I lost my eyebrows and eyelashes.
The good news is NO nausea, and my head hair started to grow back.
That’s really helpful info. I may not need to go on this, but I am assuming if the FEC isn’t working they may want to try this as another measure.
No nausea sounds great! That is definitely my worst fear, as weird as it sounds to people, my vomit phobia is pretty severe and the last thing I want is to be sick.