i had a lumpectomy in 2009 followed by chemo and radio my cancer returned this year Ive had a mastectomy and will be starting chemo again in two weeks time my oncologist has recommended 1 a week for 12 to 16 weeks paclitaxel and carboplatin i have been told the success rate is only 9 out of 100 and there is a risk of it inducing another cancer like leukimia in years to come i am worried sick is it worth the risk and going through all the side affects again it feels like an awful choice to have to make has anyone else been in this sittuation
Hi Gissele
Sorry cant help but this may bump your post up and hopefully someone will respond.
Hello Gissele,
I’m sorry that you have to go through this again, especially with such a negative, insensitive onc! You don’t mention in your post if you have any lymph node involvement or if you’ve had any further scans to establish whether your cancer has spread beyond the breast. If it was contained within the breast and you had a mx, that should mean you are now free of cancer and chemo is just to reduce the risk of a further recurrence or spread. There are women in this position who go on for years with no further recurrence. So why on earth is your onc all doom and gloom?!! IF (and from what you’ve said it seems a very big if), your cancer should come back, there are lots of other chemo options which you can try. I assume that you’re triple negative, as you don’t mention hormone therapies or Herceptin. Maybe you should post on the triple neg recurrence threads for some more support.
I had a regional recurrence 3 1/2 years after my initial diagnosis and had a further secondaries diagnosis in October which was 5 years out from my recurrence. I have just started on weekly Taxol to shrink my tumours (as they are inoperable). Before this, I did 3 cycles of Capecitabine but that didn’t work. And my onc has told me that if Taxol doesn’t work either, there are many more options we can try. So if I were you, I wouldn’t be wondering about whether or not to do chemo, I’d be wondering about getting a new, more positive onc!
Take care and good luck with your decision. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, Angelfalls xx
angelfalls thanks for your reply my lymph nodes were all clear and the tumour was 11mm triple negative i think my onc was just telling me everything she had to tell me i don’t think she was deliberately being insensitive but it is nice to hear a more possitive view from someone who is going through treatment too you sound very optomistic and i hope your treatment goes well you are right getting through the treatment optomisticly is more important than worrying about what may happen in the future best wishes gissele
Gissele
I had TNBC in 2009 and had a regional recurrence in 2011 in my lymph nodes… They were negative at original diagnosis… Primary Tumour was grade 3 and 19mm and had wle, chemo and rads… The recurrence was in the interpectoral lymph nodes between the muscle in the chest wall which is a very rare place to have a recurrence but now classed as stage 3… However I was told my chance of survival is around 80% at 10 years… My chemo was similar to what your onc is proposing… I had taxotere and carboplatin for 6 cycles which I just finished in feb… It was crap but made it through and now have a week of rads to go.
Very often if you have a local recurrence confined to the breast they would do mastectomy but not generally offer chemo unless your recurrence was large or involved nodes as well.
I had two positive nodes they were 7mm and 15mm but no recurrence in the breast.
How can two oncs give such radically different outcomes!!!
Feel free to pm me if you want to chat.
Lulu xxxx
thanks lulu i was hoping not to have chemo again so soon after last time especially as ive now had a mastectomy but i suppose it is what the onc thinks is best for me only people who have been through it can know how bad it can be it is good to read the posts other people like you have put on many like yours are very reassuring