No chemotherapy, should I be concerned?

Not sure this will help but for the record I went through chemo then rads after a lumpectomy and all nodes removed all bad, Finished it all 30 Dec 2009, so a year and 3 months on saw signs of a recurrence which has  been confirmed. Clearly went through losing hair, sickness etc for very little benefit, so chemo not always a benefit although in many cases I guess it is.Sounds like you are getting a different treatment which is probably a good thing. Honestly do not think any treatment is guaranteeed.

T

Debbie..I'm glad your tumor was found very, very early..that is such a good thing...even though TN is very, very aggressive...I find it hard to believe that a very tiny tumor could spread cells outside the breast so quickly..but then again you never know...Looking at some studies...tn's seems to have larger tumors at diagnosis...

It's hard to say..we have some TN ladies with smallish tumors that have had mets..and then we have had some ladies with larger tumors that haven't had mets...you just never know with TN

I think the standard they go by is less than 3mm (or some docs use 5mm) they forego chemo.  Other oncs give it no matter the size.  I had no choice as mine was 1.2 cms so I went as agressive as possible.  Please remember, you only get one shot at this - I would hit it as hard as possible - no matter what the size, but as Titan said above, it's all a crap shot.  None of us know whether we are cancer-free for the remainder of our life or not.  One thing for sure - this TN crap follows no rules whatsoever.  I wish you the all the best.

Linda 

In my humble opinion...well not so humble...I would not listen to those doctors.  Your life is too valuable and that is a huge risk.  Just becuase the tumor is small doesn't mean some didn't slip into the body.  Chemo cleans you up....it is our very best offense and it has to be done up front.  If it shows up later in the body I have been told it is by definition incurable.  Easier to cure you now...impossible to cure you later.  I hope you do chemo sister.  It is very doable.  The drugs are so great that handle the neasea...such a short time in your life in order to save your life.

Don't listen to those doctors.  Get a second opinion.  Get some chemo.  Two doses of AC squashed my tumor like a grape under my shoe.  At the end of chemo, all of the cancer was gone from my breast.  Chemo is wonderful.  We are very lucky that science has given us chemo to use. 

Personally I think witha  triple negative tumor taking no chemo is a HUGE risk... it is the one thing that has beeen shown to be most effective in killing this beast! HUGS on your decision.

I had a 0.5cm TN IDC removed at bil mx for what I thought was DCIS and am BRCA1+. 

 I think the docs don't know what to do with small TN tumors and I have rec'd conflicting recommendations... However, I am leaning towards chemo and will decide this week.

the more I read, the more I learn that TN is really a diverse group of tumors that we need to see studied more, more markers and treatments developed.  TN is tricky and as some mentioned don't always play by the rules.  Some TN is more agressive or chemo resistant than others but they don't have ways of reliably identifying this right now.

to deebieEW- how small is your small tumor? 

 what is tomotherapy?

Debbie.what have you decided?  You do have a choice...and like those above it is YOUR choice...I know of just one lady that didn't have chemo with TN and she is still doing ok..I see her around these boards....I think she was concerned also.

Do some research..know what triple negative actually means..make sure your oncs know too...just make a informed decision.

If you go through chemo..we will be hanging out with you the whole time..ok?

brca1babe - good luck with your treatment. I'm glad to hear you opted for chemo. Mine was small, too, and I opted in for chemo as well. 

I did not have chemo and It has been 4 years since my surgery and all is okay.    

Diagnois:   8/30/2007, IDC>1cm, Stage 1, Grade 2, 0/2 nodes, ER-/RP-, HER2-  

patzee9 - I would gently suggest you refrain from posting anti-chemo "articles" on the Triple Negative board.  You are not TN, and don't appear to have a good understanding about the very unique nature of our diagnosis and the benefit of chemo for us.  It is literally all we have.

brca1babe - on a positive note, there is evidence to suggest that BRCA+ women with TN do particularly well with chemo and have better than average outcomes.  Best of luck to you with your treatment.

wan2bwell: Chemo is not recommended for non invasive cancer like yours. Rads may not have been suggested if you had a mastectomy and the tumor was sufficiently far removed from your chest wall so as to make cancer spread there very unlikely.

Sorry about the lungs - what prompted the doctor to suggest an x-ray could be something else that showed up in an exam or your medical history. It is not a routine procedure for your BC dx. You should ask him/her.

About standard of care...

Nccn guidelines say consider chemo if tumor is 0.6 cm to 1 cm

For less than or equal to 0.5th there hasn't been enough study to say for sure, though my mo said people are looking back at series of pts that did get chemo for such small tumors and seeing benefit. Some are trying to characterize which typeof tns benefit most from which regimen.



Bc I was grade 3, tn and other bad indicators on pathology, my mo rec chemo and expects a reduction by about one half in risk of death at ten years from the benefit of chemo. The risk itself is not high to begin with given small tumor.... Say it's 8% and chemo gets me to 4% . That is enough benefit for me.



The cut off in terms of tumor size is completely arbitrary and the limit has moved down over time and the MO says he expects it will move down further. I trust him, he is one of the nccn guideline authors.

Suzi35

you mentioned that BRCA1 responds better to Chemotherapie. Do you have that article says so as i am BRC 1 positive and like to Read about it. Thanks.

I lost my wife to this terrible disease two years ago when she was 38.  She was diagnosed at age 33, found it early, did chemo, bi-latteral mast and was clean for 2.5 years.  Came back, did chemo and avastin, clean for 1.5 years.  3rd time came back in lungs and brain.  In my humble opinion, after having done so much reading on the topic over the years (I currently have children ages 9,11,and 13), I would get the chemo and have the bi-lat mastectomy.  Even though it didn't save my wife, we took no chances and did everything we could to kill the beast.  I can't even imagine sitting here today wondering what could have been had we not oopted for chemo and bi-lat mast.