ILC..Large tumor...Chemotherapy before surgery...did it work?

I didn't have ILC, you can see my signature, but I was ER+ and HER2+. I did the chemo before surgery. I started with a 8cm tumor / no nodes. final pathology was a 1.3 X 1.3 cm or 4 cm in diameter tumor with clear margins. The chemo shrunk it approx 85 - 90%.My docs said it had a great response to the chemo. Have you had your final pathology from the surgery yet?

  Hey, girls!  I started neo chemo in Aug 08, Abraxane every week for 12 weeks, then FEC every 3 weeks for 12 weeks.  I only have one more tx to go.  At the halfway point, I went from 2.9 cm to 1.9 cm and a little shrinkage on my lymph node.  I can hardly feel the tumor anymore.  The chemo definitely shuts down my estrogen, as I turned menopausal after I started.  My surgeon said they will take my ovaries also, because the ER/PR feed the tumor.

Judy, I understand about the turning old thing.  I feel like I've aged 10 years since I began, but there was a big difference in how I felt between the two different chemo txs, and I think it might just take us a long time to recover and find our new beginnings again.  I find that I have to force myself to do things good for me, but when I do them, I feel empowered more and more.  Think about this, you've battled cancer and you're still here!  You can do anything!  You'll get back to your old self in time, but this didn't happen to us overnight, so give yourself a break.

  I'll try to let you know what happens after surgery, how big,etc.

If Judy O was diagnosed at 57, I assume she was peri or post menopausal.  She would therefore not derive much or any benefit from chemo shutting down her ovaries. And if that's the way chemo works, there are other ways to do it.

Judy, what regimen did they prescribe for you? 

I find that surgery alone has weakened me. Add to that chemo and radiation, not to mention the emotional stress, and you have a lot of assaults on your system to recover from. Surgery is no joke, even when it seems minor. It took me three or four years to recover completely from a bunionectomy.

Get as much sleep as you need, and try to gradually increase your activity. If things didn't start to improve in a month or so, I'd see my doctor. When is your next follow-up?

Well, you've done the chemo--a very stiff dose of it--and so far survived. I assume they did regular checks of your heart function during the infusion process. If fatigue persists beyond reason, you might want to be checked out by a cardiologist. It was anthracycline cardiotoxicity that I most objected to. If the Oncotype DX test had suggested benefit from chemo, I would have tried TC.

As a postscript, Judy, I wouldn't worry about the chemo unless I thought it had done me harm, and even then I wouldn't regret my decision.  All of us make the best decision we can make under the circumstances, and we can't entirely control the circumstances. Some of us have a chance to do research; others, for one reason or another, decide to trust the doctor. No matter what we do, there will be drawbacks, so we try to find the optimal path.

One study I read estimated that only 40% of breast cancer patients who do chemo actually benefit from it. When it shrinks tumors, we know those patients have benefited, but if a patient doesn't relapse, s/he might have been one of the roughly 60% who won't relapse in any case, or s/he might have benefited from chemo, or hormonal, or radiation, or all three.

Here's hoping that your fatigue soon dissipates, so you can return to your normal, bustling self.