Encouraging information!!!

pickles26

Hi all! This is my first post, so I'm sorry if I don't get it quite right. I've been doing a lot of research in medical journals (with the help of my 23-year-old medical student daughter), and I have some information that should be encouraging to everyone. The first thing we realized is that treatments have changed SO much in the last 10 years. All the data that predict 10-year survival are from patients who started their treatment more than a decade ago! My daughter tells me that the last 10 years have been the most crucial in breast cancer research. We can have SO much more hope now!

The second thing we discovered is about what they call "micrometastases" to lymph nodes. They're defined as any mets that are between 0.2 and 2.0 mm. Guess what? They have NO prognostic significance! There's an article from 2009 that did a big study that determined that having a micromet is prognostically the same as having negative lymph nodes. Furthermore, there were even two studies that showed that having a micromet may even improve prognosis because of the immune response the cancer triggers by traveling to nodes

I've been worrying a lot because I had one micrometastasis to one node (0.24 mm). Who knows, maybe it's no biggy!

I've also been getting dose-dense chemo, which is every 2 weeks instead of the conventional 3-week intervals. This emerged in the last 10 years, too, and apparently it can increase disease-free survival by 27% in women with grade 3 cancer. Is anybody else getting dose-dense? Maybe I should start a thread on that.

  Pammy

Maryiz

Pammy, what a nice, uplifting post.  You have got to love a daughter doing research, and so young.  They are saying the next 10 years, amazing new treatments will come.  I am just hoping it's sooner than that.  I am one of those that need one.  Thanks for posting.  Maryiz

momand2kids

nice note pickles

I had my chemo every other week as well for 8 weeks (4 rounds).  It went fine-- some of my friends who had done every other three weeks said that by the end of the 3rd week they felt just like themselves--I never felt completely that way, but I was delighted to have it over 4 weeks earlier-I was able to start radiation and get through all of it over the winter.... hopefully it will continue to go well for you....

I agree- I think the next 10 years will be more amazing than the last 10.... just the last 6 have produced things like the oncotype dx and radiation done in 5 days.... so there is every reason to assume that things will be even better as we move ahead.....

dcarpenter

that is great news, it is true- i have read that we should be looking at the latest in medical journals, ask a librarian - they have the latest and best sites - more current stuff-not just things we look at -if we google.

Titan

I too had dose dense 4 x ac, 4 x taxol.  Alot of the women on the April 2009 chemo thread had dose dense...can't speak for the other months but I'm sure they did also.   Back in April when I started this my dr. mentioned dose dense chemo..I had assumed every 3 weeks, like you say that it can be more effective closer together...and getting done "early"  was very, very nice! 

I agree with the "google" part...alot of these studies are dated in the early 2000's or earlier.

Cher-Bear

Hello - I am new at this as well and please bear with me. I started my first treatment two weeks ago tomorrow (December 16th) and I too am doing them every two weeks for 4 times. Then my next treatment will be with Paclitaxel weekly x 12 weeks and also the Herceptin 1 x a month for a year. So far with my first treatment I have only had nausea, but again I have only had one treatment. I am scared and of course nervous at times, but I know this is what needs to be done.

Titan

You will be done before you know it!  I'm 19 weeks out..and I can hardly believe it has been that long!

Luah

Pammy, would you mind putting in the link to the study you found on micromets? It is really such a controversial issue right now -  a very prominent study from the Netherlands  http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/extract/101/20/1374

showed that mmets are more significant than previously thought - and should be treated - standard of care being ALND - and considered in adjuvent treatment planning.  I am very interested in tracking how it will all unfold.