Treatment Options?

Public Archive
1

Hi everyone,

 

I posted some things last week regarding husband and the time i was having…after much very welcome advice I have “parked” that for the moment to try and get treatment sorted. 

 

I have my 2nd oncology appointment tomorrow to try and decide what to do, I am still so confused, going to call the care line in a moment but just wondered if anyone here had similar experience or advice?

 

I had WLE & SLB on 16th October. Tumour was grade 3 but no nodes involved. Hormone sensitive so at oncology last week they started by saying we believe you could leave here today taking no further treatment and have an 85% chance of having no further problems.

 

We can offer you - Radiotherapy, Hormone Therapy and Chemotherapy. Each one would give maybe a 2-3% extra increase. We had been looking at progressing with IVF, trying just now for egg collection and then have my cancer treatment, but, Fertility doctor told me i needed to lose 2 stones before could treat me, thats fine, oncologist then said if i take 3 months to lose that weight they couldnt offer me Radio or Chemo just hormone therapy and advise if i proceeded with stimulation and egg collection, because my cancer is hormone sensitive I am incresing my risks of cancer.

 

we decided last night not to proceed with egg collection at this time, too much is going on in our marraige but also I am scared of risking more cancer? I was 40 at the start of the year so kinda my only chance though :frowning:

 

So, i now need to choose - Chemotherapy (AC type?) Radiotherapy and Tamoxifen. becasue we had been discusing preresving fertility he had suggested Radio and combined Tamoxifen and Goserelin (Zoladex)

 

Husband pressed him to ask if it was his wife, given the se’s of chemo and her already quite good chances would he tell his wife to take chemo, after being pressed oncologist said he would probably tell her to leave it.

 

My worries are - 

  • Taking chemo, side effects and health risks to potentially not a big gain for me
  • Not taking chemo, what if in 5 years time i have cancer and I would always think what if?
  • side effects of Tamoxifen/Goserelin combined

Any, and i do mean any advice or comments at all ladies, please help as I need to choose by tomorroe and I am going round and round in my own head and hearing “you are the boss, you decide” all the time from my oncologist when I can’t even decide what to wear in the morning is sending me up the wall. 

 

Thanks guys xx

2

Hi lexy, I couldn’t help but reply, particularly after reading your previous posts.  You sound similar to me though I’m not hormone positive, and waiting to see oncs this week hopefully.  I think the key answer to your worries is your second point-how would you feel in 5 years if you hadn’t had chemo. It’s whether you can take it on the chin and have no regrets, taking a next step in treatment. Or would you be the type of person who would be full of regret that you hadn’t given it a shot.  Once you have this answered the other things should seem to fall in place if you see what I mean? Sorry all that sounded better in my head!

 

We have such tough decisions to make at every step, it’s not easy to say the least! I’ve already decided before I see the oncologists that if chemo is offered I’m going to take it just because I know I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if it came back. 

 

Good luck with your journey and keep us all posted.

Joanne

Xx

3

Hi,

I faced a similar decision 2 years ago although as I was 50 I didn’t have the fertility issues.

Chemo would have given me a 1 to 2% extra 10 year survival. But I decided it wasn’t worth the extended treatment and side effects for such a small increase. I had radiotherapy, and am now on tamoxifen.

It is a difficult decision to make. For me the key was to be comfortable that if I do get a recurrence I will not be saying what if… I know some people are happier throwing everything at it. The important thing is to go with your gut feel…what do you want to do and how will you feel later?

The only other thing it might be worth thinking about is that you are still young, and the tumour was grade 3. So maybe there could be more impact on 20 or even 30 year survival rates.