i saw the consultant pn the 23/4/15 and was diagnosed with invasive carcinoma grade 3 and I have been given the choice to start either with surgery or with chemio.
the surgeon says that because the lump is behind the nipple it will have to be a mastectomi, I have asked for reconstruction with fat from my belly, on the same occation because if I dont do it know I m not going to do it after. The operation is 6 hours and because of that is difficult to have the teatre so it might be after the half of June.
The other option is to start chemio for 18 weeks to hopefully shrink the lump that is 2.8X 2.6. Nothing found in ct scan and bone scan, They also say it will help to tailor the chemio to the cancer because they can monitor the response of the cancer while is there. No guarantee it will shrink. I already suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome and I cant imagine how I will cope with 18 weks of chemio and an operation after 3 weeks.
I would tempted to have the surgery first and then the chemo when you are on the road to recovery. I didn’t have a choice I had to have chemo first to shrink the tumour and I had surgery a week,after finishing chemo as I was going back to the UK,for my sons wedding and the specialist didn’t want to leave the surgery until I got back! Needless to,say it knocked me for six!
Hi I had surgery first (lumpectomy) and then chemo followed by radiotherapy. Wasn’t given a choice. All hospitals do things differently but I was of the understanding that chemo is offered first to shrink a large tumour to maybe avoid having a mastectomy, but if they are saying that you will still have to have a mastectomy regardless, then I think I would be inclined to have the surgery first. Whatever you decide I wish you the best of luck and hope everything goes well for you. Sending lots of hugs xx
I thought I’d post to give a different perspective and to highlight that it’s a personal choice and no right or wrong. I’ve had breast cancer twice - the first time I had chemo before surgery, the second I had surgery then chemo.
I think it was easier to go through chemo before surgery. I also think chemo had a role in undermining the healing process when I had chemo after surgery as I got an infection.
It wad really helpful to know how the cancer wad responding to the chemo -for me at least.
So pros and cons either way. At the end of the day try to go what’s right for you.
I was given the choice of chemo first or not. If I’d gone for surgery first it would have been a mastectomy due to the size of the tumour.
The argument the team gave me for chemo first was that they could see if the tumour was shrinking and if by chance any cancer cells had escaped my breast then they would be zapped too.
It was a grade 3 her2+ tumour and responded so well to the chemo that It pretty much shrank away to nothing and I ended up with a WLE instead.
I had to have ultrasounds every 2 cycles of chemo to check what was going on and had to have a tiny marker put in under local anaesthetic (a bit like having a core biopsy again) which was later taken out during surgery. The op itself was about 5 - 6 weeks after my last dose of chemo and I was physically fine (well fine in the scheme of things!) by then.
I have no regrets about the choice I made. I hope you are able to reach the right decision for you
I’ve had the lump removed but because they couldn’t get a clear margin I was told I would need chemo and mx. I was recommended to have the chemo first because the cancer was in more than half of my lymph nodes so, although scans did not show any spread anywhere else, they couldn’t guarantee there weren’t any cancer cells lurking so the chemo should sort that. Also, they would not have done he reconstruction at the same time if I had he op first as the recovery time is longer so this would have delayed the chemo…
Good luck with your decision
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