Hi there…I had my surgery, a lumpectomy and 3 nodes remonved on 13th March and I had my oncology appointment through last week and its not until 4th may…nearly 2 months after surgery. I was told by the surgeon that chemo was pretty much a certainty because of my grade 3 tunmour and its spread to one of the nodes. Having just read the cancercare booklet that they gave me.it says that national guidelines are to commence treatment within 31 days of surgery??? I then made the mistake of googling it and NICE also recommend with 3 days…I also read studies that said survival rates were significantly affected by the timing of treatments and 31 days was good up to 60…not so good and past that it drops again…I m feeling so sick about it all and i cant get hold of any breast care nurses or the secretary of the oncology dept… I wondered if anyone had any experience of pushing appoitments forward or whether im mistaken and its a normal wait!?
Thank you,
Lisa
just to add, Im only 38 and my growth was oestrogen positive so Im also anxous that my body is still feeling any potential
Hello Lisabird,
I hope you managed to eventually get hold of someone or rang the helpline here for advice and have hopefully found some reassurrance. The waiting game is agony and you have to play it again and again - well that is how felt anyway.
I remember how anxious I was as my surgery was outwith “timescales” after chemo - so the opposite of you!! I also had radiotherapy and that was at least two months after surgery but it was still apparantly within apt timescales - and I was told by two Oncos that it would be ok as long as had it within 6 months of surgery!
Anyway, I may be wrong but if you had lumpectomy, did you also have radiotherapy (for maybe 20 sessions over 4 weeks or so?). If you had it, dId the radiotherapy not start within 31 days of surgery? You would not normally be given radio and chemo together for breast cancer, as far as I know.
The NICE guidelines say to start radiotherapy or chemo within 31 days of surgery.
Timings can also depends on healing after surgery and people’s situationss can be very individual and don’t necessarily fit into a one size fits all approach - even with NICE guidelines.
Anyway I am not an expert and different people have different treatment plans. But if you did have radiotherapy after surgery then it would seem your path is following a “normal” timescale.
If the plan was to have chemo before radio/you are not able to have radio for other reasons, then I am surprised that timescales were not fully discussed with you at the time of communicating your treatment. Try ringing the BCNs again to discuss, there must be someone there who can get back to you about it and explain your situation.
Best wishes to you and I hope things get moving for you,
Take care x