Chemo or No Chemo 9% recurrance

I am stage 1, 1.4 cm Grade 1 am 66 years old and am -PR -ER and -HER2 and am also thinking I will not take chemo

I have been disgonized with a small lump in my left breast for which I have to go for biopsy.  the lump is irregular solid nodular mass.  Is this cancerous I am very depressed and helpless.  Please give me some advice.  I am 47 years old.

Malady, it's not your family's decision if you have chemo or not.  That's between you and your onc.  If you have low numbers, and your onc says it won't benifit  you, and you agree and are comfortable with it, then that's great.  If however, you want the chemo, and your onc. says ok, then that's great too.  You are the one to make the decision.  Your family can weigh in, but not make it.

Here's hoping you make one that you are comfortable with, and like san said, there is no right or wrong here.

Good wishes to you, salomil, when you have your biopsy.  Lumps can be benign as well as cancerous, and  only a biopsy will tell.  All I can tell you at the moment is to try and stay on the positive side of things, and know that it will be alright.  Don't get ahead of this game!!  And that's not an easy thing.

Jennifer

Malady, just read your comment of 12/1/07.  I was diagnosed on November 2007 and have been up and down the roller coaster since then.  Had lumpectomy, 1 cm, had sentinental node removal (3), looked good, but when final path came back showed microtraces of cells in 2 of the nodes.  Had full axillary - 10 more nodes all negative.  I am ER pos; PR neg; HER2 neg.  After much research, reading, opinions from 3 different oncologists and soul searching, I have opted for no chemo.  I feel good about my decision.  I am 60 years old, postmenopausal and don't think the chemo would make a significant difference.  My oncologist supports me 100% even though she recommended a short course of chemo.  She thinks I will do well on radiation and hormonal therapy.  So do I.  It's a great feeling.

Hi girls,

My oncotype score was 13.  8% recurrence at 10 years with tamoxifen.  That means 8 out of 100 women my cancer would return.  Having chemo would lower my cancer recurrence down to only 2% to 3%.  My tumor size was 1.8 cm.  I went to see 4 oncos and two recommended chemo and one onco did not recommend chemo.  The last onco said that I needed radiation therapy and hormone therapy.  She didn't want to recommend me chemo because of my oncotype dx score of 13.  She wanted me to participate in the tailorx clinical trial.  I have decided to just have radiation therapy and hormone therapy.  Having chemo would only reduce my cancer recurrence  by 2 or 3%, which is not that beneficial.  I do not want to experience the side effects of chemo.  

Take care girls!

Nikkiannej

So I was diagnosed post-menopausal.  11/06, I was IDC stage 1, 1.2 cm, grade 2, ++.  After surgery, we were waiting for the final results of Her2.  My surgeon said if it came back +, then he would recommend a small dose of chemo; if it came back -, then no chemo.  It came back -.  I did ask if the oncotype test would help me make a better decision; he said no and did not recommend the oncotype test.  When I see him in August, I will ask him why.  He always mentions that I was low-risk.  Of course, with cancer, who knows? My husband says that I worry a lot; but I said I do not worry, I just don't trust.

DoreenF - My oncotype score was also 19 and my oncologist essentially left it up to me, although he indicated that most people in my approximate situation do NOT do chemo. I couldn't decide what to do so I just went for a second opinion at Dana Farber in Boston and they unequivocally did NOT recommend chemo for me. They felt the possible negative side effects of the chemo outweighed the possible (small) benefit. So no chemo for me, either!

It does make you wonder, doesn't it? It's hard to explain why there are such different opinions for such similar situations!

There are lots of different opinions because chemotherapy is a relatively new field which began to emerge about 35 years ago. At the moment it is developing rapidly, with numerous studies testing different approaches to treatment currently underway. If an oncologist has found one method of treatment helpful to some patients, s/he may be reluctant to accept a newer one that s/he has no experience with, or hesitant to accept a new method of deciding on treatment which may call past assumptions into question. Besides, some of these studies result in conflicting findings, partly.because the design of the studies varies.

Recently the tendency is to recognize that breast cancer exists in a number of subtypes, and that a treatment that works for one type may not work as well, or at all, for another type. Some tumors are nore aggressive and more likely to recur or spread than others. Many traits that were once thought to be significant,in determining this, like tumor size and lymph node involvemnt, are beginning to seem less important than the genetic makeup of the tumor. This more complex view is an advance over the earlier one, but it still leaves plenty of room for disagreement.

We know a lot more about breast cancer now than we did thirty years ago, but there is a lot we still don't know, and the less we know, the more room there is for disagreement, even among experts.

The oncogene dx is supposed to only be used in node negative cancer, but my surgeon told me a story about a woman who had positive nodes and requested it, so she just didn't check the node status box, and the score came back low, and the woman decided to decline chemo.

This discussion shows that even in similar situations, opinions will vary.

My score was 12=8% recurrence, so chemo wasn't recommended.

Kira 

I had a OncoDX score of a 9 and elected not to do chemo but went right on Tamox.

GG