I’m not sure if I’m posting in the correct forum, but will do for now to prepare for my upcoming appointments for Axilla surgery results and my first Oncology appointment.
Post Mastectomy & SLNB Result (Primary BC): S1, G2 IDC ER+ PR+ HER2- LVI PI, 1 of 4 Nodes & soft tissue deposit affected [T2, N1, M0]
Questions for the surgeon at the Axilla Surgery Results Appointment:
- I will request a copy of Histopathology report in advance.
- What was the MDT outcome of my Axilla surgery?
- How many nodes were affected and were there other tissue deposits that tested positive?
- Given the density of my breasts, how will I (remaining breast) be monitored moving forward? Will an MRI always be required in addition to Mammogram as the first diagnosis was only fully completed with both?
Questions I have for the Oncologist:
- What is the proposed Oncology treatment plan?
- Type of treatment
- When will each treatment start and end (order & duration)
- The side-effects (short & long term) of each treatment
- Where I will need to go for each treatment
- How the treatment will affect my everyday life, will I be able to work while receiving treatment
- Was a genomic profiling test (e.g. OncoTypeDX, EndoPredict, Prosigna) done?
- If one was not done, can you explain the rationale to understand the basis on which the proposed treatment plan has been established?
- What is the risk level (e.g. recurrence, spread) associated with my cancer profile?
- My mastectomy margins were clear; if my cancer profile has intermediate-risk or high-risk factors, could I benefit from having chest wall radiotherapy? Can you provide me/is there data which reflects Risk vs. Benefit for the purposes of decision making?
- Is it possible (& would it be beneficial) for me to have BRAC testing? And could that change my treatment plan, i.e. making other treatment options available to me?
- If BRAC testing is done, and an altered BRAC gene is identified, could I benefit from a PARP (poly-ADP ribose polymerase) inhibitor to reduce the risk of recurrence/spread? Can you provide me/is there data which reflects Risk vs. Benefit for the purposes of decision making?
- What are the implications of LVI & PI presence from a treatment perspective? As Ki67 isn’t mentioned in my histopathology report, do you know how the rate of cell division & growth is understood?
- Questions to ask only if I am eligible to participate in the Optima trial that was briefly mentioned to me before:
- I understand that the Optima trial is now in Phase 3 what was the outcome (results) of the previous phases of the trial?
- What are the benefits and drawbacks/risks for me if I were to participate in it?
Oncology Treatment Team process questions:
- Will I be assigned an Oncology nurse specialist for the duration of my oncology treatment similar to the clinical nurse specialist assigned during the breast surgery phase? Or are they one and the same?
- Who do I reach out to if I have problems during treatment? Are there scheduled appointments with the oncologist at given points during treatment with availability to discuss treatment issues if/when they occur?
- Will I be seen by both a Medical Oncologist and Clinical Oncologist if my treatment plan includes both Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy?
These are the questions I have come up with so far. I expect a lot/some of these would be addressed during the appointments without me asking them, but am writing them down to ask in case they aren’t. Would appreciate thoughts & any other relevant questions from fellow BCN’ers.
