No Treatment after Surgery

tricia1899

I am trying to find some stats on what happens if I just say no to treatments after surgery. I feel like since it has been removed already and was just stage 1A, ER/PR + and HER2-, that maybe I am better off without anything else. I meet with the Oncologist tomorrow and am sure he will have many suggestions but after everything I have looked at, in my case, I can't really find a good argument to put my body through anything else at this point. I am thinking about the long term damage versus possibly getting another tumor in the same breast 5 years from now. I may sound crazy but that is my thought at this point.

mustlovepoodles

You don't sound crazy, but you do sound scared, as well you should. Wait on making any decisions until you see the oncologist. Treatment recommendations will depend on a lot of things--the size & stage of the tumor, aggressiveness, Oncotype (risk of recurrence), age, and genetics. Your doctor may recommend anything from radiation (to get any potential baddies still nesting in the site) to hormone suppression (to turn off that pesky ER/PR which helped your cancer grow in the first place) to chemo and more surgery, depending on the outlook and your personal genetic story. Right now you simply don't have all that information, so I would caution you to not jump to any decisions just yet.

For me, I went into this thinking it would be a walk in the park. Had a nice little small low-grade cancer, got it all out with the lumpectomy. I had planned on doing the minimum radiation and AIs, but when my genetics testing and Oncotype came back, it changed everything. My breasts are trying to kill me! Chemo isn't much fun, but it hasn't been awful. I have more surgeries to look forward to thanks to my gene mutations, but I know I will survive, IF I undergo treatment.

I wouldn't recommend that everyone hit their cancer with the ferocity at which I'm going at it, because for most people it's just unnecessary and over-kill. But I do urge women not to make permanent decisions about temporary problems. Do not flat out refuse treatment without at least trying it, unless there are moral or religious implications. And even then, I urge them not to refuse, but to compromise if at all possible.

I want my breast cancer treatment to be a one-time event. I pray that if I give it all I've got right NOW, perhaps I won't ever have to deal with this again. Had my cancer (and my genes) been lower risk, I would not be doing all the treatments I'm doing now, but I would definitely be doing something to make sure to lower my risk to the absolutely lowest risk possible.

tricia1899

Thanks, hopefully I will have more info tomorrow after my appointment.

superius

What mustlovepoodles said. For me, Oncotype score was the deciding factor for Chemo (27!). I had already been "warned" by doctor friends that treatments are usually more aggressive for younger patients, & "to do whatever needed to". My MO also said that Hormone therapy is BIG part of it for the ER/PR+. because if those crazy cells trying to come back, "they starved to death." If Oncotype was low, it would be just surgery & hormone pills. But oh well.....

I haven't done the genetic testing yet, but it's highly recommended by everyone because of my age & lack of family history with bc, there's higher chance there was mutation.

Good luck with your appointment.

mustlovepoodles

Just checking in to see out it went, Tricia.

labelle

I too had a small, low grade BC. I was told by my oncologist that there was about an 80% chance that surgery and RADS would be enough (your stats may be different). In my case, 80 out of 100 women with my type and grade of cancer would be fine w/out hormonal treatment, that I could reduce this to 90% with a hormone blocker-that is if I were one of the 20 out of 100 who would get a recurrence after surgery and RADs, a hormone blocker would prevent the recurrence about 1/2 of the time - in 10 women out of the 100. I went with the big number and passed on the hormone blockers due to fear of side effects and wanting to get on with my life. I did have RADS, reluctantly, but the stats showing the benefits in favor of RADS after a lumpectomy were more persuasive IMO.

If you have a low oncotype chemo won't be offered anyway. No one even suggested I would benefit from chemo with an oncotype score of 11. The oncotype score is a very important factor in determining whether or not you might benefit from chemo-definitely something to know before making that choice.

Radiation is the standard of care after a lumpectomy as are hormonal blockers for all with estrogen positive BC-because they have no way of knowing whether or not surgery or surgery and RADS (with a lumpectomy) are enough. You just have to do your homework and make a good choice for yourself-there are no guarantees either way-my oncologist could not say with certainty that I absolutely needed hormone blocker (80% not) or that if I took them their use would guarantee I would not have a recurrence (only reduce the chances) or that I would or would not have bad side effects (you can't know until you try them). However, many like myself who choose not to follow the standard of care, make other changes in our lives in terms of diet/supplements/exercise.

Most on these boards do follow their doctors' recommendations for treatment and so most people who respond will urge you to do just that. Having seen my mother suffer as much from the treatments as the disease prior to her death 4 years after DX, I have a more skeptical view of just what aggressive treatments can and cannot do for us. But each step of the treatment is choice, doctors recommendations are just that. Get your doctor to lay out the numbers for you and then make the choices you think best for yourself. The good thing about most breast cancers (if there is a good thing) is we have time to gather info and make good choices-it's not like a heart attack where something has to happen right now! One step at a time.