low estrogen receptor, therapy needed?

Lilaa

hello,

I am new, 31 years old and recently diagnosed with bc, which totally destroyed my world. in the last few days I began accepting my illness, when I received a new information about my hormon receptors. Then the sorrows began again.

With a fine needle biopsy the cancer tissue was taken and was tested twice in different hospitals. at the first hospital the result was ER-/PR-, HER2+. but now when it was tested at the second hospital the result is ER 10%, PR 0%, HER2+.

Now I am totally confused and also scared. don't know which result is right. I read that the prognose for her2+ ladies is bad, combined with er+ it's even worse.. typing my diagnose on "predict" states the same. I am really depressed knowing, that I am eventually er+ and her2+.

Do you know if it makes sense to do (besides a herceptin treatment) an antihormonel therapy after finishing the chemo? does it work with only 10% er+? And if not, does that mean for me, that I have the high risk, that the cancer may grow again after chemo, because my estrogen feeds it?

Tom1981

Lilaa

Don't pay attention to predict. It's outdated. Cancermath seems a bit better but is also outdated. Treatments are getting better all the time and I believe you have herceptin as an extra weapon. Your tumor seems small so that is good. Not sure on your nodes. Take things one day at a time and don't trust 99% of what you read online. I have read horrible things only to find out that the articles or information is decades old. I'm not saying to take it lightly, it's cancer and should be taken seriously but you will find many people who live long lives thay beat it. They are all around you, you just don't realize it.

Kathleen26

It's not that unusual that 2 different hospitals would get a slightly different result on testing. I assume after your chemo you will be having surgery, and when they remove what's left of the tumor and test that, don't be surprised if there is yet again slightly different information.

But it sounds like the HER+ is pretty clear (sometimes there can be ambiguous results for that as well), so you will probably be getting Herceptin. I don't know whether they would give you an anti-hormonal with an ER% so low. Good question to ask your doctor.

It may feel right now as though your world is totally destroyed, but don't give up. There's still a good chance you can survive this.

Lilaa

Thanks for your encouraging words! I hope you are right and everything turns out to be good - even after many many years.

i'm just so confused and scared about the different results, which may lead to a wrong treatment after chemo... that might increase my risk of recurrence...

sorry for whining so much, the diagnose turned me to a totally anxious and negative person

By the way, i am doing a neoadjuvant chemo, so i dont know for sure how many nodes are involved. by ultrasound the doc supposed that at least 4 nodes are involved. With only ultrasound he couldnt see more, so there might be much more nodes infected.

SSInUK

opefully you'll get herceptin and perjeta which is an amazingly effective combo. It's common to get different results on different tumour samples because tumours aren't one thing all the way through, they're patchy. You'll know more as you go. You have some excellent treatments available to you and yes some oncs use anti hormonals for low ER, so all is still to be figured out. Good luck