I am a bit confused, people seem to be talking about being on hormone therapy whilst having their radio therapy. I was under the impression that i would not be starting tomazopan until the radio therapy is finished. Is that because they had been using it to shrink the tumor?
On reflection first he talked about radio therapy. The next the he said was. Then you will go on hormone therapy. So perhaps he did not mean ‘next’ but ‘also’.
perhaps it will all be made clear in my meeting with the onc. The later the better as far as i’m concerned
I started my tamoxifen at the same time as starting rads (I think I’d prefer temazepam though! - was that a freudian slip?!).
I think its just chemo that they can’t do at the same time as hormone therapy as it might make the chemo less effective. I’m sure a quick call to your BCN will clear up when you’re supposed to start it. My oncologist sorted it out before my rads started and although I was tempted to have a bit more time without tamox SEs, I started only a day after I was supposed to!
I have just seen mu oncologist for rads planning and she said to start taking Tamoxifen 2 weeks after chemo finishes. However she did say i could start it the same day as radiotherapy starts so i would remember to take it each day which is 3 weeks after chemo finishes.
xx
Looks like it differs wherever you are. I’ve just started Tamoxifen the weekend just gone, start Herceptin this Friday, and rads on 26th July. So if I get SEs, who on earth knows what they’ll be from! All seems a bit much, but then again, they’ve known about the cancer since early December 2010 and it’s hormone positive, and HER2 positive, so I reckon it’s just as well they’re starting now, as soon as possible after chemo it seems.
I started Tamoxifen on the first day of Rads, 3 weeks after finishing chemo. A bit confusing as I did not know what was causing the side effects: tax? Rads? Tamoxifen?
I started RADs and tamoxifen at the same time - 5 weeks after final chemo. 2 weeks after RADs I started Herceptin. I think you can have Herceptin at the same time as TAX but not at the same time as FEC
if the rads are going to kill all the cancer cells, what is the point of taking tamoxifan at the same time, unless it takes time to build up in your system. surely it is better to give your body a chance to deal with one thing at a time?? Can 8 weeks (say 5 weeks rads plus 3 for side effect to subside) make that much difference??
I started my tamoxifen on first day of rads also. My onc gave me my prescription on day of my last chemo and said start taking them in about 3 weeks time when chemo se’s have worn off but i waited an extra week because i was on holiday.
I was told that if cancer returns somewhere else in the body as a secondary, one third of these people would have had negative nodes, and two thirds positive nodes. Cancer can spread through the blood, not just nodes. Many many with node negative bc have gone on to develop secondaries, but hopefully tamoxifen will prevent his.
i thought my doctor got it wrong. My cancer had a well defined blood supply, so i asked him if it could have spread through the blood, he said the node are the first defence and so it has not spread.
shows you should not ask the barbers anything technical. I will ask the onc when i see her