Hi there, I am new to the forum and I’m worried for my mum she has just completed her 6th and last TAC chemo and will start her radiotherapy in a few weeks - 20 sessions planned. After 2 operations the cancer was found in 9 out of 20 lymph nodes and a very large tumour removed. At her last appraisal with the oncologist she asked what scans she would have having gone through all this treatment to see if she has the all clear but was told “we don’t do scans” other than an annual mamogram - is this right? I feel like she’ll be living with a ticking time bomb and every ache or pain she has in the future she’ll be dreading the cancer has spread - the oncologist said she would know if it had! Is this a regional thing? Can we insist she has scans? She is 76 and has coped fantastically (although if you asked her she wouldn’t say she has). If anyone has any advice or suggestions I’d love to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
Hello digidiverdeb
So sorry to hear your mum has had to go through all this treament and you must be really scared for her. I can’t answer your question re scans, but when she had chemo, she would have had a blood test before every session. If there were tumour markers in her blood, these would have been monitored to ensure they were at safe levels. She is going to have radiotherapy, which will sterilize the area where she had the cancer so that won’t be able to spread. You don’t mention if she will be taking any hormone tablets such as arimidex or one of the others which she would probably have if her cancer was hormone sensitive. I think as the oncologist said, that she would know if the cancer had spread, I’m not sure, but I think this is the only time they do scans. I’m sure someone will come along and correct me if I’ve got this wrong at all.
Wishing your mum good luck with radiotherapy and sending both of you hugs.
Poemsgalore xx
Hi
wouldn’t it be nice to have a quick blood test that said what it was.
Your experience sounds normal and what i am expecting. I am told that any other lumps and bumps need to be reported to doctor. That is lumps anywhere. Pain or other enexplained symptoms that last need looking into. The Tv adverts seem to say three weeks of symptoms for certain types But obviously depends on discomfort. It is a worry but we just have to put it to the back of our mind and enjoy life.
i hope your mum gets well quickly from treatment and back to an active life.
I was really apprehensive about my first appointment with the oncologist after finishing active treatment. After all, I’d had 2 operations, 12 sessions of chemo and 15 sessions of radiotherapy. Obviously I wasn’t expecting to be told I was cancer free and to go away and worry no more but I expected at least a blood test. Instead the registrar had a quick look at my chest, felt my neck and under my arms and asked how I felt. I said I felt OK so she said they would see me in a year’s time, carry on taking the hormone tablets and that was that. I’m going to bear in mind what Rosebud said, put it to the back of my mind and enjoy life. Your mum has done really well having all that chemo and I wish her all the very best.
hi
could anyone explain these tumor markers never heard of them i have bloods taken before my fec-t but noones metioned this
thanks jenny
Hi Jenny
I’m on Fec T too and according to my blood test slip, the markers for breast cancer are CEA and CA153. I think there are acceptable levels although don’t know what they are. I hope to ask the oncologist about them when I see her next. I think they’re just to measure the possibility of vascular invasion. Don’t know much else about it. Hopefully someone more in the know might come along and put us both right. Just thought, if they’re not mentioned on your blood test slip, perhaps you don’t have any. 
Take care.
Poemsgalore xx
Thanks everyone for your kind words of encouragement. Mum has found this last session of chemo really hard to take with the side effects lasting much longer than previously and she begins her radio therapy next week - already feeling very fatigued but then at 76 she is bound to feel the effects more than a younger woman. She will also be starting the hormone treatment Anastrozol 1mg for 5 years - again she is very worried about the side effects but a bone density scan done last weeks shows no deterioration of the bones so she should be fine. It must be the same for everyone faced with this horrible desease - she feels she has put her life on hold for the last 6 months and I feel she is so wrapped up in her treatment that its getting her down, I’d like her to try and get out a bit more but she just feels too tired. I’m sure the coming of the spring months ahead will help to put a spring back in her steps.
Thanks again for your encouragement it really is a big help xxxx