I was wondering if anyone would be able to share their views with me.
I was diagnosed at the end of Oct 16 with stage 2 ER+ breast cancer aged 34. I had the lump removed and fortunately it has not spread to my lymph nodes.
I think due to my age, I have been given the option of chemotherapy which will make a 2% difference to my 10 year prognosis if carried out prior to my radiotherapy and hormone therapy.
I would just like to know from people who truely understand what they would do/have done and why?
Most of my family and friends are encouraging me to go ahead with it as 2% is still an improvement in my longer term prognosis but they haven’t got to go through it.
If you have any advice/views on this or have had similar experiences/decisions to make, i would be very grateful if you could share these with me.
Can you remember the actual % rates for each option?
Personally, 2% probably wouldn’t be enough for me to go through Chemo (I was one of the unlucky ones who had severe symptoms and still not recovered).
If the %'s were very high anyway I would consider not doing the Chemo part.
The other thing I would take into consideration is the death rate and experience in your own family of beast cancer. Any female relatives who have gone through BS and died or survived?
That’s just my own feeling and I appreciate that we are all different and it’s a very hard decision to make.
So I’d take it. 2% is a small amount, but I’d take any treatment that gave a measurable increase, even aged 55. (Btw, I suspect that it means your stats go from X% to X+2% so might actually be a bigger increased probability). But I understand why others might say no. I have a high tolerance for treatment and so I’m more likely than average to say yes to anything. Not that I was given any choice as I’m HER+
Any treatment you can have that improves your chances, I would say is worth it.
I had a lumpectomy followed by chemo, rads and hormone treatment. For me, the chemo was just 4 cycles, every 3 weeks. And yes at times it was challenging, particularly the fatigue, but it’s such a short period of time in your life. My attitude is do anything possible to beat this horrible disease.
Hi Clare, I was diagnosed in August last year with stage 2 Er + and Her2 +. I did not have any lymph node involvement. Due to the her2+ I was told that I needed chemo and like you when they worked out the difference for my 10 year prognosis the difference was 2% like yourself. I am 52 and due the her2+ the oncologist told me that even though the % was low he would advise to go ahead with the chemo but the decision was mine. I did go ahead with chemo and have had my second one over a week ago. My chemo is different to the majority who are on FEC and therefore the side effects are different. I have to admit that the chemo has been hard on me but the majority who are going through it with me seem to cope well and it is only for a short period of time. I know it is hard but in the end the final decision is yours and I am sure you will make the right decision for you. Good luck. Alison xxxx
I am 49, er+ node negative and lymph neg, but my tumour was eligible for oncotyping and it came back as 29 to intermediate (high). Added to this the tumour was vascular at one edge. So chemo was recommended.
Did you use any of the online % survival rate indicators such as “Predict”, when I put my details in, the five year rate came back as 92%, with chemo 95% but the 10 year rate was 78% but with chemo took it to 88% so felt it was worth taking 6 months out to do the chemo, it hasnt been as bad as I had anticipated but did a lot or reading before deciding what i was accepting and what I wasnt…
I was fortunately never sick on chemo.my main symptom was a kind of drunk, woozy feeling…felt as if I was toppling forward and difficulty walking straight and couldn’t think clearly.like a hang-over but I hadn’t had any fun getting it
