tumor unresponsive to chemo

ddb,

I was also unresponsive to ACT. Actually my large tumor went down 50% and grow back even bigger in four months.  In those days you got all ACT together monthly. (my tumor triple in size to cover my whole breast while on ACT) With chemo they do not know if it will work until they give it to us.  I see you are going to surgery now.  That's what they decide to do with me also.  After surgery I had to have more chemo.  All this means you don't have response to these drugs.  Thankfully there are many more chemo's now for us triple negs. My next set was Carbo/Gemzar & Avastin.  This combo is now changing as the 2nd course of treatment.

Remember they don't know if the next hit will be the one that makes the tumor respond.  Also protocol requires that you take a set amount of a drug before stopping treatment...mostly with early disease. In other words give the drug a chance.  Usually in groups of four or six. We may not like it but it not usual with early disease that doctor's don't tell us everything. As we go along and become more vocal we start getting the answers we want.  They think they are protecting you....I'm not a mushroom. I don't like being in the dark.

Flalady

TNs are notorious for being chemo-resistant, but fortunately there are a lot of treatment options out there now so you will have many other chemos that very well might work for you.  Definitely ask all the questions you can think of, and don't settle for an answer if it doesn't feel complete to you.  I think most docs want to give you the amount of information they think we want to hear ~ mine is great because she knows I want to know as much as possible, so she spends as much time w/ me as I want/need... but she also has patients who prefer to just know the bare minimum, so she does not try to force details on patients who do not want to hear it.  I'm sure if you let your doc know you want/expect to be more informed she will be happy to make sure you are comfortable with your meetings/info exchanges.  Hang in there!

Sftef,

I goes back to all triple negs may not have the same disease.  All they know is we do not have receptor's they can detect.  That is why some us respond differently to certain types of chemos.

If you visit the recurrence section you will see a lot of us doing our eighth and ninth chemo.  Than you see people who never have chemo after first treatment is completed. I'm on chemo #9.

fFlalady