Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy: complete pathologic response?

Traveltext

Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, where chemo precedes surgery, is often indicated for IBC and other advanced cancers where the tumor needs to be shrunk before an operation can be successfully attempted.

By default, it is also a way of finding out how the tumor reacts to the various chemo drugs, since the tumor and any removed lymph nodes are tested afterwards. Pathologic complete response is where the tumor has been successfully treated. I had pathologic incomplete response.

The Survey
Did you have a pathologic complete response?
If not, does this worry you like it worries me?

jbdayton

I had a near complete response. My tumor shrunk from a 3 cm mass to a 5mm mass. It was removed during my mastectomy. The final report said I did have 1 cm of DCIS found in the original tumor bed. This led to 5 weeks of radiation. This has been 3 years ago and feeling better every year after my annual mammogram and ultrasound. I did have a mastectomy since my ordinal tumor was encroaching on my chest wall.

Good luck feeling less fearful as time goes on. Live life fully.

Itry not to worry and trust my treatment was sufficient.

Traveltext

Thanks for your story jbdayyon, and I agree things improve as time goes by.

Useful links kayb, thanks. And worth pointing out that neo adjuvants really are able to show the effectiveness or otherwise of chemo unlike adjuvants. My treatment was best practise and I'm NED. Like lots of people here I'm just keen to learn more about this insidious disease and share info with others, especially the BC guys who generally aren't as inquisitive as me 😊.