Chemo Protocols that Work on ILC

I had 4 rounds of dose dense AC prior to surgery.  I had a 1 to 3 % chance that it would do anything..., but because my tumor was so large, I went with it....pathology after surgery showed no response but PET was clear. I am 2 years out...I know some also get a Taxane but the Oncologist thought that the risks out weighed the potential benefits so I did not do it. I did do rads. You cans see my stats are similar to yours...I was BRAC negative.

If ILC's response to chemo is reputedly low, why is chemo the standard of care?  (I just googled some studies that confirmed low percentage responses to neoadjuvant chemo in ILC patients.)  

I have just completed adjuvant chemo (6 x TAC) and am now wondering if it was worth it as a preventative for distant recurrence? Neither of the oncs that I consulted with before starting chemo indicated that ILC had a low response rate.

I am interested in any comments on this - thanks. 

When researching chemo on ILC found this article.

http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/8/1228.full

The thing is, that lower grade cancer does not have as good a response to chemo as grade 3. I had a Grade 2 IDC at the time I was having chemo for my grade 3 HER2+ve ILC and the chemo had no effect on it, except maybe it kept it from growing and spreading. We didn't know it was there at the time as it had been missed on my initial mammogram.

ma111, Were you stage IV from the start? I would agree TC is harsh, but does it work for ILC that is the question? At this time it is being given for all stages without knowing if it will work. I'm hoping the current trials will give us a better picture.

ma - taxotere is the taxane and carboplatin, the platinum drug - you have them around the wrong way.

I had TCH x 6 due to the HER2 status.

Sue

Kira1234,

The TC or TCH, if Her2+ is a first choice with a lot of the oncs in a difficult situation. It put me into the operable status by some distant nodes disappearing after the 3rd round.

The point I was trying to make is that one has to have certain chemos before you will be considered for a clinical trail. The vaccines are only in the trail status. If she went with AC, she would have to do more chemo before the vaccine. The vaccine responds better with the less rounds of chemo that you have done as it works by boosting the immune system. There have been some good results with vaccines.

 So, my advise is to go with the big guns to start with. The TC also works better for chemo resistant strains.

If there were a for sure answer to the questions of which one worked best, than the question would not exist. She didn't say what stage she was or if there were any nodes on the films.

I did go into remission after all treatment even though they could not remove all the postive nodes, (Rad boosting killed what was left over). That would have been the time I should have started the vaccine at John Hopkins. The National Institute of Health has a vaccine for measurable disease.

http://www.guideline.gov/content.aspx?id=14311

http://www.ahrq.gov/

Sherri - that is really interesting. The reason I had been researching response to chemo was because of the 2nd undiagnosed one sitting there all the time I had TCH. I found out it was a rare subtype of IDC that is usually found in lots of nodes. I was node neg, so I'm hoping the chemo did actually have some effect on it.

Sue

I have ILC and I am scheduled for 4 rounds of taxotere and cytoxan. And then comes radiation.

Hi,

I had 4 treatments of adriamycin and cytoxan followed my 4 treatments of taxol.  I had a 7+cm tumor, but when the pathology came back what was left was 3.5 cm and very "holey" and "swiss cheese" like.  I consider that a good response.  My surgical margins came back negative and I had 1 node and 1 micromet node out of 7.  I was Grade 2.  I am considered stage IIIa, but because of the chemo, my pathology says stage II.  So there was definite improvement with chemo for me.

Katerina:

I know that you are looking for feedback from Stage III women but felt that I had to tell you this.  From December 2010 - till April 2011, I was on Carboplatin/Paclitaxil (a taxane) and it did absolutely nothing for me.  Let me restate that - the Carboplatin did totally ruin my blood chemistry while doing absolutely nothing for the ILC.  I'm onto another regimen entirely - just finished second cycle.

Just an aside on this new chemo - to qualify for it you must have failed on AC and a taxane!  I'd love to know how many ILC patients met this test and are on this new drug!

I am doing neoadjuvant hormone therapy to shrink my tumor before surgery.  I was told that my Grade 1 ILC tumor probably wouldn't respond to chemo.

nurse ann

 I am not clear which med are the new ones you speak of

My oncologist told me yesterday that he only ever saw one patient with heart problems from Adriamyacin -