2nd round of Chemo... anyone else in my shoes?

Anonymous

Hi Ladies,

I'm 23 and was diagnosed with Stage IIIb BRCA1+ and triple negative in Oct '10. I had a lumpectomy and then went through 16 weeks of taxol and avastin then 8 weeks of AC. I had a PET scan at the end of April which showed no cancerous activity. I had  a BMX on June 3rd and spent the summer trying to fill expanders fast enough to start radiation asap. With my radiation planning we also did another PET scan and it showed that the cancer was back in the same place it was in the beginning (internal mammary lymph nodes) and this time a little bigger than before. It grew back in 3 months!  Instead of the radiation we were plannning, my dr recommends another round of chemo. I'm so depressed because I thought this was almost over, my hair is growing back and I was finally getting my future back on track. Has anyone else had to do more chemo after surgery? How did it work the second time? Please help I feel like I'm starting from square one again.

KiwiMum

Hi Kita. I'm can't answer your questions. I've had surgery and still going through chemo, with rads to follow.



I understand you feeling depressed and completely understand about your hair! Hopefully some other ladies can answer your questions.



Best wishes.

jennyboog

Wow, you're so young (too young for this crap)....I thought I was one of the youngest but no that goes to you.  Anyway, I can't help with the second chemo but I'm sure someone here can.  I did have intermammary + nodes that were taken out with rads/chemo.  I'm so sorry you have to start chemo again, I understand your disappointment.  I just wanted to send you hugs and good thoughts, let us know how things go.

NancyD

Kita, not exactly the same, but I had neoadjuvant chemo (4 x TAC), surgery, more chemo (2 x TAC), and then rads. I didn't have any tests after the surgery—the second round of chemo was planned from the beginning. But I can sympathize about losing your hair again.

There was some concern over my intramammary nodes on early PET/CT scans, but no mention of them later. I believe the six TAC doses cleaned them out. But it was definitely one of the fields that they radiated, so they got poisoned AND zapped.

Good luck, and just let this be a blip on the calendar!

Yanyan

Hi, Kita. How is everything going? I was dx this Jan at 36 years of age. Your doctor won't tell you mastectomy is a better fit, rather he or she would tell you overall survial is the same-lumpectomy vs mastectomy. That was my struggle for months. I also have an agressive type of cancer, her2+. Given the nature of my breast cancer, i wanted to do everything possible to reduce recurrence risk. I am glad that i had double mastectomy because DCIS was also found in the cancerous breast and it never showed up on any scan. If you have active cancer you will need chemo to nail it down. Hope everything goes smooth with your treatment.