Breast Cancer Now Forum

Hi Sophia    hope you’re getting on well. Since you posted this question, the positive trial has presented its results at sabsco and it showed that taking a break for pregnancy after 18 months or more on endocrine therapy had no effect on relapse outcomes so oncologists are now confident to advise it is safe to have a break for pregnancy - I think it was for up to two years to included breastfeeding. Good luck x ... View more

Hi lambin    thanks for that- mine was/is the same biomarkers. Had yours reached your lymph nodes? Mine was in 4- I am so terrified by this. I only had 18 weeks of chemo though. Wow- 32 must have been awful.    I am so glad you’re doing well now. X ... View more

Hi thabk you for sharing. Do you mind me asking what your original diagnoses was? X ... View more

Hi Pinkrose  1 lymph node is certainly not uncommon and they tend to grow “up the chains” as my oncologist said so many don’t even remove all nodes when only 1 or 2 are effected. You may well find you have only 1/20 or even 30 nodes effected.  kf you have a look on nhs predict breast and put your cancer details in, you’ll see that a node or two doesn’t actually make that much difference to your prognosis.  good luck with the surgery. I had it in Feb last year and had four nodes effected. It was a shock at the time but a new treatment (abemaciclib) was approved for early bc whilst I was having chemo and I already feel better about my prognosis. Things are improving all the time, many vaccines are in phase 1 trials right now. xx ... View more

hi Ina   my nodes all looked clear at biopsy and MRI and it was then in four of them, grade 3 with LvI and extra-capsular spread. My ki67 was 18%. Just to reassure you, they then CT scanned me and that was clear. I worry about relapse much more since finding it in my nodes but abemaciclib is now also available so even for those of us with high risk disease, the four year stats on that are r86% are relapse free after four years of starting it…..which is usually about 9 months after diagnosis if chemo and radiation are used also. So at nearly five years you have a really good chance whatever your picture. There is no data for after that yet but there is so much research going on into vaccines now that I hope the landscape will be very different in a few years. X ... View more

Hi Ina   Ah right, yeah I had mitotonic rate 2, pleomorpism 3 and tubule formations 3 so Nottingham scored  8, grade 3   i had 3 X EC and 3 x docetaxal. I found EC very hard but the taxane ok. Some people are the other way around and old apparently sail through, so I hope it goes ok for you. Good luck at your appointment and check back in ti say how you’re doing.   x   ... View more

Hi Ina sorry to hear of your diagnoses. Can I ask what the difference between histology Al and nuclear grade is?   I was just given grade 2 at biop, which was then changed to grade 3 after surgery. My tumour was a little bigger at 18mm and my receptors were eR/pr 100%.   if you do end up having chemo then don’t panic. It’s horrible, but doable. Just one round at a time is the way to think.  are they giving you an oncotype?  im on hormone therapy and abemaciclib now- doing ok on both and life is somewhat normal again though the fear of recurrence is constant and still something im struggling to live with. x ... View more

Hi Kelly do you mind me asking how many lymph nodes you had effected? It’s hard to find other grade three people with a few nodes who are a good few years clear… I never know if I’m stage 2b or 3a at four nodes.  Glad you are still doing well. X ... View more

Thank you medsec. I think one day at a time is good advice ❤️ ... View more

Thanks- I am grade 3, stage 3 so I find it hard to be hopeful really. All the best x ... View more

Ah thanks hopesister. Do you mind me asking what grade you were? ... View more

Hi Jaybro   thank you for the reply and I am so sorry to hear you are stage 4, but glad treatment is keeping things at bay.  so, was it the trip beg that spread and the other that didn’t? Was the other tumour ER positive?  I had full clearance and 4/13 nodes positive. My tumour was under 2cm so they were surprised at number of nodes- I worry this means it is very aggressive (grade 3).   I have put details into nhs predict and I know I have a 1 in 3 chance of not being here within 10 years. It’s scary to know but I’d rather be realistic so I can get on and do things I want as I’m only 39 so thought I’d have more time.  I just can’t get away from the scared and sad feelings.  x ... View more

Hi   Do you mind me asking if you’re still NED? I have grade 3 in four nodes…pretty scared x ... View more

Hi Marial   thanks for your long-term survivorship post of hope. Can I ask what your original diagnoses were…grade/stage etc? My prognosis isn’t great but I am still primary at the moment (grade 3 in lymph nodes) and just looking for positive long term stories   thanks    thanks  ... View more

Hello seabird   do you mind me asking your original diagnoses? Just looking for ten year positive stories really.  thanks  ... View more

Thank you. Wishing you luck with your MRI x ... View more

Hi Athena i have had several replies on this forum, the macmillan breast cancer forum and cancer research where people are several years clear with grade three and several lymph nodes. I’ve found the positive stories help a little but it’s all very scary and the forums are a blessing ad much as a curse as you can’t help but notice the people with secondaries so I’m trying to I stay positive and just use them when I need them.  Are you hormone positive? If so, you should b r eligible for a new drug called abemaciclib which has recently been approved for early bc (has been used in metastatic setting for a while) and this improves things for the first few years (hopefully longer, but only a couple of years of data, so far).   If you are HER2 positive then there are already well-established targeted treatments. I hope you are feeling a little better and I try to remind myself that nodes really aren’t everything in this picture.  xx ... View more

Thank you.. so glad you are doing well. X ... View more

Hi Scarlet    thanks so much for this. Were you grade 3? I’ve nearly finished chemo now- one left. So glad you’re 6 years cancer free.  thanks for the reply and positive story. Xx ... View more

Hi  I’m glad that the sertraline is helping with the anxiety. I suspect I’ll need to look into something similar when I’m out of main treatment. I have proprophanol (wrong spelling) at the moment, to take as and when.  I hope that your hormones settle down. It’s quite annoying that you’ll prob have to go through another natural menopause again in a few years but hopefully your body will remember and adjust quickly.  thanks- it wasn’t too bad yesterday. I prefer docetaxal to Ec and still have steroids for today so waiting for it to hit me tomorrow then only one left!  xx   ... View more