I’m new to this - I have been looking for information online, but I think there is nothing better then the voice of experience.
My mum has grade 3 invasive ductile carcinoma - her cancer isn’t responsive to any of the three treatments like Herceptin. when they removed the cancer they found four nodes were cancerous and so they removed those.
They are going to start her on chemotherapy and radiotherapy - I am not sure what to think or make of this - I know chemotherapy and radiotherapy is going to be a rough road for her, but most of all I want to know that she is going to be OK and that though it feels dramatic to say ‘isn’t going to be beaten by this’. So far it feels all we have had is bad news - does anyone have a feeling as to how treatable this is - how effective is chemotherapy?
I understand everyone’s cancer is different, but I just feel it’s better to know what your facing to help you deal with what may come.
Any thoughts, advice, comments would really help,
Best,
J
Hi Jennyanne,
Welcome to the Breast Cancer Care discussion forums where I am sure you will get lots of support and information to help you and your mum. While you are waiting for replies I have put for you below links to 3 of BCC’s publications which you and your mum might find useful to read. Perhaps your mum would also like to join in the forum discussions, there is good support here which will help her through treatment and beyond.
it sounds like your mum has triple negative BC neg for oestrogen, progesterone and herceptin which is the same as mine.
that in itself isnt fantastic but also its not a death sentence either… but you are probably aware that lots of other elements are taken into account like the side of tumour and the type of surgery she is having. also although you say she has nodes affected is this the only 4 they removed or have they only removed 4? even so many women with affected nodes still lead very full and productive lives.
the only sure thing in all this is we dont know who is or isnt going to be beaten by this disease unfortunately.
how effective chemo is again depends on a variety of factors but your mums medical team wouldnt be offering it to her if they didnt think it was going to be beneficial for her to have it in the long term.
sending good wishes to you and your mum and hope she gets through her treatment without too many bothersome side effects… but we are all here for you and for your mum if she needs us too.
Thank you so much for your post! It is great to hear from someone who knows about this.
All this has happened while I have been in the USA and my mum in the UK and so all I really know is what she has said on the phone nad the bits of info I have found on the internet. I have so many questions but I realise she is still taking it all in herself and so I don’t want to bombard her with questions…
Mum said that they went to take out the ‘sentinal’? node, they could see that the cancer was there in the nodes and removed 4 nodes but decided on balance to leave the rest… I assume this means they thought the others were healthy but I didn’t think to ask that when I was speaking to her. Her cancer was a lump 2.5 cm X 3cm lump which they removed and said they the margins were clear which is fantastic news!
With any luck she will see an oncologist this week to find out what her chemo will be and when that will start -
Thank you again for your message, my best wishes to you and I hope very much that your treatment is going well for you!
Jen - sorry to hear about your mum and that you are having to go through all this when you are so far away… {{{hugs}}}
The sentinel node is the first node and then they form layers like ladders further back up… I had 6 nodes removed and 1 was positive…
As Lulu said unfortunatly we can’t say for certain if any of us will have future spread or recurrance as sometimes people with susposedly very good initial results get secondaries and sometimes people with dreadful looking results never have a recurrance…
this is a link to an online site where you can type in your results to see how much benefit treatment should give you… it takes into account alot of factors including your age, nodes involved etc etc etc - it does assume that radiotherapy will be used if needed (for some reason it automatically assumes for that but you have to actually input other treatments…) however it is only an indication… and you would also need to know what chemo your mum is going to be on… cancer.lifemath.net/breastcancer/therapy/index.php
it may well be that your mum doesn’t want to know these percentages… i know alot of ladies who don’t - including some who might actually be reassured to know they have a 97% chance of being here in 10 years…
Thanks for the note and the hugs! Mum has her appointment with the oncologist a week today so I will know more next week and probably take a look at that web link.