Well this makes me depressed..

well - here is my take away....more than 90 percent of lymph node positive women survived at least 5 years....

The tumors were early, at clinical stage T1 or T2, meaning less than two inches across. Biopsies of one or two armpit nodes had found cancer, but the nodes were not enlarged enough to be felt during an exam, and the cancer had not spread anywhere else. The women had lumpectomies, and most also had radiation to the entire breast, and chemotherapy or hormone-blocking drugs, or both.

The study, at 115 medical centers, included 891 patients. Their median age was in the mid-50s, and they were followed for a median of 6.3 years.

After the initial node biopsy, the women were assigned at random to have 10 or more additional nodes removed, or to leave the nodes alone. In 27 percent of the women who had additional nodes removed, those nodes were cancerous. But over time, the two groups had no difference in survival: more than 90 percent survived at least five years.

Whoa ... but I am grateful for research ...

This was a very interesting article, thanks for posting it.

I had a six inch mat of cancer in the axillary area, which was reduced by neo-adjuvant therapy down to about two inches, so they probably would have ended up removing it anyway.  I haven't had any problems that I can blame on LE yet, but it is obviously a huge concern for me.   

Hopefully they are trying to research how to cure/better control that for those already suffering for what was thought to be the right thing to do.   How distressing for those like Christine to see this, but how many of us would have agreed to forego the node surgery while this study was going on?

Since I had my chemo, another doctor told me that the chemo regimen I received probably would not be given to anyone with ER+ cancer within the next two years or so, and my rad onc told me straight out that the boost they were giving me was not proved to help prevent recurrence, so clearly we are all enduring a lot of cancer treatments that may be more harmful than helpful.   Some days modern medicine looks suspiciously like voodoo--doctors believe in it, so they do it, but the science may not be as solid as they like to think it is.

HEY SHERRI,ARE YOU STILL ON YOUR ANTIHORMONAL?? IF NOT WHEN DID YOU STOP...IF ON,FOR HOW LONG??THANKS,CANDY

Neoadjuvant chemo was considered with me when I was first diagnosed with my Stage 3 ILC but quickly ruled out due to the fact that the tumor was so large and there was lymph node involvement.  I will be getting it after surgery.. I had surgery Friday btw

Well, I wish I would have read this article about 3 wks ago...before my BMX.  My arm hurts and I'm hoping it's not LE and just surgery & I know rads is only going to make it worse.  Thank God for medical advances though...as bad as we got it the ones before us had it way worse.