i was wondering of anyone got give me some advice- mum mum has just been confirmed to be tripl neg, 1.5 tumor with no lymph involvement, the chemo she has been prescribed is 4 lots of the Epi then CMF (think that is right) anyway after reading lots i think i found that if you were triple neg you should be given the 4x Epi but then some other drug. has anyone got any info related to this? our next oncology appointment isn’t till 3 week for the last epi!!! also can anyone give any clues to what the CMF combination is like-does your hair start growing after the epi has finished?
any advice would be greatly appreciated.
love to you all
you provide a world of support to me
jo
xx
I think it depends very much on which centre you are being treated in. I am on 6 AC chemo which was started before they knew I was triple negative - tumour is responding quite well to this so they are carrying on. This will be followed by surgery then rads.
Its difficult not to get worked up and worried when you know other people are on different types of chemo for the same thing but it depends on what your centre and onc uses and has best results with.
Cant help you with the hair growth bit.
Hope this helps
Fiona
x
You said you have done some reading on the chemo. Did you vivist www.cancerbackup.co.uk? If not do this and type CMF in the search engine and links like this appear:
Information about a combination chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer called CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and fluorouracil 5FU). It describes the drugs used, how they are given and some of the possible side effects.
last reviewed: 01 April 2007
Q&A: What is CMF chemotherapy?
This may give you some addition answers. Jojo is quite right, different centres seem to prescribe different regimes and it depends on the clinical status of the individual.
Regarding the hair regrowth I think you will find other discussions on this forum that may help. My hair did not grow until all the treatment had stopped then it came back better than before. However others have found regrowth to take some time.
I am triple negative and was given 6 x FEC and rads, no other drugs have been given
Hi Jo
I was in a similar position to your mum, no lymph nodes, 1.2mm tumour, triple neg and was given 4 x AC followed by 4 x CMF. Can’t really comment on the Epi but I personally found the CMF a lot easier to handle than the AC. My hair started growing back while I was on the CMF and I had enough to go uncovered within a couple of months. I am now 2½ years past diagnosis and doing really well (touch wood).
Hope this has helped and very best wishes to you and your mum.
Karen x
Personally I am not triple neg however I know many ladies where I go that are and are being treated with E-CMF chemo. Everyone is very individual and I’m quite sure that your mum’s onc will have put her on a chemo regime that he/she feels is best for her indivdual diagnosis.
I started E-CMF in May and am due to have my final dose of CMF next weds!! I had accelerated Epi to start with as part of the TACT 2 trial. My hair came out properly 2 days after my second dose of Epi. However it started to grow back as soon as I switched to CMF. Now I have a very impressive covering and it continues to grow back with avengence!! In fact, when I went for my day 1 CMF yesterday the staff at the unit could not believe how it had grown. I was well chuffed!!!
I found the Epi to be fairly un-problematic, however the CMF has been even better. Very minimal side-effects and much more tolerable! Recently I started a thread on this page entitled ‘top tips going through chemo’. Check it out if you get a chance, hopefully you will find it helpful,
thanks girls for the advice.
mum doing as well as can be expected. thanks kelly i saw your top tips, what a great idea. all the advice i been passing on to mum is from this site, i can’t thank you all enough.
keep fighting you are all doing so so well and a huge thanks
love jo