please tell me what you would do!

jpmercy

hi everyone! i need help with this one, i am 30 years old have an 8 month old baby was dx with DCIS in July, my mom and grandmother both had BC mom is a 23 yr survivor dx at 38  my grandma died of BC dx at 64 BRCA negative. anyway, had BMX due to family hx. after pathology showed DCIS with a 2mm invasive tumor grade three HER2 3+. my onc originally said chemo 4x and herceptin one year. but he was not 100% bc of hte size but felt he should treat the pathology. he sent me for second opinion at major cancer center they say dont treat. but they are from the philosophy that size matters my onc is on philosophy that pathology matters. to make it more difficult i would like more children which is very very important to me. is the chemo and herceptin over treatment? and im doing something that i really dont need and then end up not having children because of? or do i throw everything i can at this now be sure i did everything be thankful i will have a good prognosis and wait and see if i can convieve later? saving eggs is not something i am comfortable with. my onc feels it truely is my decision bc i am in a very grey area and the medical field really doesnt know how to treat me.....so the million dollar question is will it return without treatment bc it was so aggressive OR should i relax bc it was so small? please weigh in on this what would you do?????

Ang7

Oh Jennifer,

Sorry you have to deal with all of this and a new baby!  I cannot give you advice as I am just finishing my treatments this Fall.  I just know that I am Her2+ also and that is one reason that my onc wanted to "hit it with everything we have."  Hope some other ladies will add their thoughts and be able to give you some good advice.

Hugs to you...

Ang7

Oh Jennifer,

Sorry you have to deal with all of this and a new baby!  I cannot give you advice as I am just finishing my treatments this Fall.  I just know that I am Her2+ also and that is one reason that my onc wanted to "hit it with everything we have."  Hope some other ladies will add their thoughts and be able to give you some good advice.

Hugs to you...

j414

JP,

I'm not Her2+, but I read an article re: an MD Anderson study of early stage her2 and it stuck with me.  Link to the article is below.  The second link is to the a recent thread on this site that discusses this very topic.  

Best,

J

http://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/news-releases/2008/early-stage-her2-positive-breast-cancer-patients-at-increased-risk-of-recurrence.html

http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/80/topic/757192

ICanDoThis

Have you considered posting at the Young Survival Coalition?

 There are many young women in your position.

 Sue

imbell

Google Guidelines in Oncology. There is a 129 page PDF that outlines the various treatments for different stages of cancer and follow up tx. Nowhere do I see do noiting.

kimbers

Jennifer,

I know what you are going through. I had a similar diagnosis. I was diagnosed last year at the age of 39 with 3cm of DCIS and several areas of microinvasion the largest being 2.5mm.I also have 3 kids under 10.  I had several consults including Stanford and UCSF. I ended doing a trial for node negative HER2+ tumors at UCSF. The trial was 12 weeks of weekly Taxol and Herceptin. Then continue with Herceptin for the rest of the year. I finish this December. I was also premenapausal. I"m not saying it is easy but the chemo was doable. I did lose my hair and was tired but I got through it. I'm now on just Herceptin and I feel pretty good. My onocolgist at UCSF is well known in the breast cancer community and she said because of my age (and you are younger thant me) that we wanted to give my cancer a "whiff" of chemo but I didn't need the full guns chemo.  I think there are oncologists who are now doing the regimen even off trial. I felt that I got the benefit of chemo and Herceptin but I didn't have to go through terrible side effects. My periods did return. I know it is a tough decision and I thought long and hard about it but I'm glad I did the trial. You can also PM if you want. Maybe talk to your oncologist about this regimen or see if the trial is still open.