Very Confused!!!!

jan508

I have been diagnosed with ILC and am having a dmx with t/e in September.

My pathology report was hormone positive, HER negative with 2.3 cm in one breast.

Doc's say with no lymph node involvement and low oncotype dx I will only need hormone therapy. Why am I always reading of Stage I and II with hormone positive, HER neg and smaller tumors having radiation and chemo?  Am I missing something?

Thanks

Jan508

Alyad

Have you had the Oncotype DX? What was your score?

 It measures various factors in the pathology and assesses whether you would benefit from chemo or not. Some tumors are slower growing and chemo really won't do much to them. In my case I had all the same factors, but I had a high Ki67 score (which is one of the things the oncotype dx looks at) and is a measure of how fast the cells are growing- mine was really high - 67% , so chemo was indicated. I had rads bc even tho I had a mx , I had a positive node and refused further ALND.

jan508

Thanks for your quick response Alyad.

My Ki67 score was 10% but I have not had surgery yet so I do not have an oncotype dx score yet.

rreynolds1

Lots of factors to consider when deciding on treatment options.  I had ILC with an oncotypedx score of 18.  I was 58 and chose radiatoin and hormone therapy.  No chemo.  Chemo would have decreased my 10 year recurrence rate by 3% but there were other risks to consider with chemo.

Roseann

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Alyad

I didn't have the Oncotype dx either since I ended up having a positive node- chemo was indicated regardless. I think your doctor is being optimistic saying you MIGHT not need chemo- but there is a good chance you will. Age is also something they take into account and they were saying I should do chemo ( I think based on my age -35 , and the ki67 being so high- before I had surgery and had the positive lymph node) . I didn't want to do chemo but changed my mind after the positive node.