CHEMO OR NOT?

Hi, this is my first post, but any advice will be appreciated.  I'm 49 and am tying to decide chemo or not.  1.5cm IDC, grade1-2 (another gray area), node neg, ER/PR+, HER2-.  Oncotype dx score came back 13.  Onc says if it was 11, no chemo, 15 she would recommend chemo.  It is up to me, she said she would not be upset if I pass on the chemo, but if I want it, 4 rounds of TC.  No history of bc in family, I'm healthy otherwise.  This tells me if I read between the lines no chemo, but onc said the docs in her practice had a mock argument on my case and all voted chemo or no, the concensus was chemo.  With my oncotype dx of 13, I have an 8% risk factor.  Chemo drops it by 1/3 and meds by anoter 3, correct?  I may not be able to take tamoxifen due to blood clot risk.  Anyone else in my position?  Thanks in advice

nina49

Chemo, like every other treatment out there has side effects, and it doesn't come with any guarantees.  At some point, the negative effect of those side effects outweighs any benefit that you get from the treatment.  That is why doctors sometimes don't recommend chemo.

The older you are, the less likely the cancer is to return.  You are also more likely to have other risk factors that make you more susceptible to the serious potential side effects such as cardiac damage.  Oncologists are much quicker to recommend chemo to younger women because they have more years for the cancer to return, and are likely to have more agressive cancers.

Chemo has been shown to be less effective against slow growing cancers.  You and your oncologist need to take all of those factors into consideration when making decisions for or against adjuvant chemo. 

What good does it do you to be cancer free, (which you have a really good chance of anyway) if you become significantly incapacitated due to a treatment that you didn't need?

In reality, for each of us, there are only 2 percentages that matter, 100 or zero.  The cancer either returns, or it doesn't.  We each need to make the treatment choices that we can live peacefully with.

nina49-- my understanding was that the percentage for distant recurrence given in the oncotype dx score assumes having taken tamoxifen for 5 years, so I don't think there is an additional drop in percentage for taking hormone therapy, that is included in their calculations. My doctors told me that if I did chemo, in addition to radiation and hormone therapy, it might drop the percentage from 12% to about 10% Can anyone else confirm this my understanding about the oncotype dx score already including the assumption that you have taken the hormone therapy for 5 years?