I had hospital appointment yesterday. They said they wont know if I need chemo until I have had lumpectomy and gland removed on 29/6 (gland was clear when they did biopsy) they mentioned testing for hormone’s but I really dont understand how it could be homone receptive when I am post menopause, are there any older ladies who can explain please.
Hi Boudkillg,
I am post menopause! It means that your tumour is driven by oestrogen which the body still has in fat…we still produce oestrogen after menopause!
If it does turn out to be hormone receptive you will be able to take tablets for 5 or 10 years which stops oestrogen!
Mine is hormone receptive!
Sandra x
Bouskillg
I am also hormone receptor positive and post menopausal, apparently even if you are post menopausal you still have some estrogen in our body fat, I never knew that.
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Hello Bouskillg, sorry you’re here, but welcome to this great forum, full of really wonderful helpful people who will get you through this rough time. It is all the unknown at the beginning, but you will get used to all the terms the docs will use. I never knew there was more than one type of breast cancer. Although oestrogen lessens after menopause, it is still there. I was 61 and well past it (well!!) when I got bc 2 years ago.
If your breast cancer cells have oestrogen receptors, the cancer is said to be ER positive. About two thirds of women with breast cancer have hormone positive cancers.
If you are ER+ then you will have some sort of hormone therapy after any op that you need.
Try to take one thing at a time, and DON’T GOOGLE - which is full of outdated and misleading info, which will not apply to your particular bc. It’s a good idea to find out info as you need it from here and Macmillan sites. If you go to the main page of Breast Cancer Care you can download all the info you need. Do come back here as there is always someone who will support and help. You can also phone for advice on this site. Take care.:catvery-happy:xxx
Thank you for the advice everyone, its very confusing all the different medical jargon but I am learning something new every day, I had already decided not to google - thank god for this forum. x
I’m surprised they even mentioned mastectomy as your lump is really small. as I learned on Monday, size doesn’t really matter and it is grade that governs treatment. Mine was graded at biopsy.
the tests take quite a long time that they run on the tumour, once excised and they can’t tell anything from looking at what they take out. Really, it’s the pathologists who govern our treatment. Surgeons kind of just do what the test results indicate what should happen, then oncologists decide what adjuvent therapies and accompanying drugs match the path report for best outcome. It’s all really personalised now so don’t get too worried if someone on here says ‘I am having x,y,z’ because we all are different (and a bit comes down to individual consultant preference and expertise as well). For our type of cancer, surgery and hormone therapy are the most effective treatment. Anything else is belt and braces.
good luck.