Hi all!
I was diagnosed back in July (2017) with a 3.2cm invasive BC ER+ PR+ HER- . Ultrasound and a needle biopsy suggests that it hasn’t yet spread to my lymph nodes.
I’m ‘petite’ (5’2” and a 36A/B) so the surgeon recommended neoadjuvant therapy to shrink the tumour so that I could have breast conserving surgery. The tumour is close to the skin so, as it is, he would have to remove half my breast. He and my oncologist proposed chemo, but I pushed for an Oncotype DX test which thankfully suggested that I’d be better off on just endocrine therapy. So I’ve been on Zoladex to put me into menopause (I’m 46) and Letrozole- to shrink the tumour since early August. And then I will stay on the drugs for a long time…
I saw the oncologist this week and had an ultrasound. Positively the tumour is shrinking (now 1.8cm) and the Oncologist now wants me to have surgery. But I’ve been reading clinical research papers online, and it seems that recent (2016 and 2017) research is now suggesting that an optimum time for pre-surgical (neo adjuvant) endocrine therapy is 8 months (and up to 12) so the tumour will shrink maximally ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24562823. My oncologist says she doesn’t like the idea of waiting more than 4-5 months for surgery. But if the tumour shrinks another 45% in the next 3 months then my surgery will be far less significant…
Has anyone else faced this dilemma and waited more than six months for surgery? Any advice?
thanks,
natalie