I got my diagnosis on thursday and i had been dealing pretty well with it so far but tonight im just stuck in my head. I have told my aunties today, my mum, 2 younger sister and fiancé already knew as they knew i was awaiting biopsy results. I am pencilled in for surgery for 7th August and im trying to plan things i might need to sort out before hand. So far as I’ve been busy explaining to my immediate family its as if it was happening to someone else (which it has over recent years, both my grandparents have had cancers, my gran died but my grandad has all clear now) and im always the one attending appointments with people to take in information but i think its finally starting to hit me that its actually happening to me. Can anyone tell me how long to expect to be going through chemo and radiotherapy after this surgery? Its 2cm tumour ER+ still waiting for HER2, will be having lumpectomy barring any surprises when they operate.
Hi there. Sorry you find yourself here, @schadwick. I’m guessing you are fairly young from your post. I’m a bit further down the line treatment wise but mine was er+ and a similar size too. The good news is that it’s treatable.
It took weeks for it to sink in for me. Even when I had my surgery, I felt sort of disassociated from it all. The surgery was my first ever (I’m 46) and I was amazed at how painless recovery was. The scary bit was having the anesthetic although I needn’t have been scared as the staff were so kind. You’ll be home within a few hours probably.
With regards to timescales, it depends on lots of things…your hospital trust, your pathology, your age, your surgery. If you have one er+ lump and it’s not her2-, and no lymph nodes are involved, you might find treatment is just a few months. Do you need chemo? If you do then most regimes take around 4 months but you need to factor in recovery. Radiotherapy is typically 1 to 3 weeks.
There are lots of groups on here including one on surgery and one for certain groups like younger women (under45, so I missed that group by 4 months!).
Not long until your surgery. It sounds like you have lots of people to support you at home, but we are all here to help too. X
Hi, sorry you are going through this. I had lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy in April 2023. My oncologist referred me for 5 sessions of radiotherapy and 5 years of tamoxifen. I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting several weeks of radiotherapy. Your treatment plan is designed for you alone and everbody is different. It all depends on size, location, type, your age and fitness. Things moved very quickly for me from tests to diagnosis to treatment. I didnt get too much time to think about it. I just thought ’ crikey, I have cancer’. Now, over a year later, I am a bit more relaxed. Still under annual follow ups.
I hope things go well for you. Keep us posted x
Hi @schadwick,
Sorry youve joined the club that nobody wants to be a member of.
Not everyone gets chemo, not everyone has radio, so its too early to say how long you’ll need treatment. Unless your surgeon specifically gave you their expectations based on the biopsy results, which they did with me, but I think that is because it was low grade. Even then, sometimes the plan can change between biopsy and surgery.
Generally, if it hasn’t got to lymph nodes or got any lymphovascular invasion, then its quite possible there won’t be any chemo, which makes a huge difference to timescales. Estimations of the size and grade of tumours from biopsies, can be different from whats actually found in surgery.
Sorry you are going through this, i had a mastectomy and full node clearance 6 days ago. Im having chemo when healed and have been told her2 positive, ive been told to expect a year of treatment, mine id idc estrogen positive and her2 positive hope that helps. Good luck with your your treatments, sending love & positivity xx