Hi, I am waiting to see my consultant again regarding which drugs I will be going on. Nobody seems to have any urgency regarding startling treatment. I feel I should be more proactive and wondered if anyone went for a second opinion before starting treatment?
Hi
You don’t say if you have secondaries or not (this has been posted in the secondary BC section of the forum, the title of the section is quite misleading!)
Whichever stage of BC you do have though your oncologist should be aware, from any biopsy/previous biopsy, what type of BC you have ie the receptor status and more importantly how aggressive it is. This will determine the treatment but also give them an idea of how your particular BC is acting ie is it growing fast or slow. So although it is very unnerving (to say the least) there is often a delay between diagnosis and the start of treatment whilst the oncology team determine which treatment you will have.
Hopefully you will get to start treatment soon as the waiting around is almost the worst bit. And getting a second opinion at this point would probably only slow things down as they would need to be sent all the relevant information from your current oncologist before they could make a decision. A second opinion is useful however if you are unhappy with, or unsure of, the course of treatment you have been told you will be having. I have asked for them on a number of occasions (I have SBC) either to confirm my own oncologists decision or to discuss what might be the best way forward when my current treatment stops being effective.
I hope this reply helps.
Nicky x
ps I’ve just seen from another thread you started that you have been diagnosed with SBC and are due to start on a hormone treatment. If this has been decided already it would be worth speaking with either a BCN or your oncologists secretary to find out when you will be starting, if you don’t know already.