order of treatment

C-squared
C-squared Member Posts: 514
edited June 2014 in ILC (Invasive Lobular Carcinoma)

I'm looking for women who had AC followed by T and surgery last.  Did you have a lumpectomy or mastectomy?  Thanks for your feedback!

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  • kar123
    kar123 Member Posts: 273
    edited March 2012

    Hi Cathleen,

     I had 4 Adriamycin/Cytoxan then 4 Taxol, then surgery (double mastectomy), and finally radiation.  I had cancer in the left breast and a prophalactic mastectomy on the right.  I was urged to have a mastectomy by both my breast surgeon and my oncologist, but had already made the decision to do it because I knew I would worry myself silly.  Good luck with your decision.

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  • mary625
    mary625 Member Posts: 1,056
    edited March 2012

    Hi Cathleen:

    I had chemo first:  4 A/C and 4 Taxol.  I knew from the beginning that it was not going to be possible to have a lumpectomy.  The tumor was just too big, multifocal and undefined.  It had already gone into the lymph nodes.  I had a mastectomy on the left where the cancer was and a prophylactic mastectomy on the right. Chemo was from September 2011 to early January 2012 and surgery was February 2012.

    Theoretically, I guess there are some people who go into chemo first to try to get to a lumpectomy, but I haven't heard of anyone specifically.  It seems like when it's necessary to have chemo first, it also seems necessary to have a mastectomy.  Just my observation.  

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  • Babs37
    Babs37 Member Posts: 455
    edited March 2012

    I had 4 DD AC followed by 12 weekly Taxol, right mastectomy and radiation. My doctor wanted chemo first because I had an agressive cancer and 2 nodes involved. I had to have a mastectomy because I had 3 tumors in 2 different quadrants.

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  • itsjustme10
    itsjustme10 Member Posts: 796
    edited March 2012

    I had 4 A/C, then 4 Taxol, followed by a BMX, and then radiation.  The cancer was on the right, but I decided to have both done because I refuse to live my life in fear, worrying about the next mamogram. Luckily none of my nodes were positive, but I still chose the BMX.  It shrunk some from the chemo, but not enough for them to consider a lumpectomy.  I'm not sure what I would've chosen if lumpectomy were an option.

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  • puce
    puce Member Posts: 159
    edited March 2012

    I had 4 DD A/C, 12 T/H, then BMX with DIEP reconstruction and finishing my Herceptin until August.

    Was told chemo first to see if it would work.  Got a complete response.  No cancer in pathology report when I had the BMX.

    Had the BMX for prevention.  Could of had lumpectomy but have 3 little kids and I don't want a reccurence.  I don't have time to deal with this again!

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  • nowords
    nowords Member Posts: 423
    edited March 2012

    I had 4 DD AC that was not successful so T was passed on, as  Oncologist thought that risks outweighed benefit. Had MX anyway because of huge tumor area. Rads after surgery, in year 3 of tamox.

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  • patti13
    patti13 Member Posts: 89
    edited May 2012

    anyone out there have a mastectomy first followed by chemo and rads?  sounds like most have had a different order of treatment....

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  • rozem
    rozem Member Posts: 1,375
    edited May 2012

    i had fecD which is similar to AC-T  - I did neo adjuvant and it looks like i am the only one here who did a lumpectomy after!  Mary is correct, i was a surgical candidate for a lump pre-chemo as my lump was approx 2 cm.  I believe if your lump is large or multi-focal then you would not be a candidate whether you do chemo first or after.

    the reasoning behind doing chemo first is to make sure the chemo drugs work on your tumor, also start treatment right away to go after any micro mets.  They like to do chemo first for aggressive (her2/trip neg) tumors over a certain size and large tumors

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  • antonia1
    antonia1 Member Posts: 135
    edited May 2012

    I had mastectomy first, followed by AC and then TH and radiation. I wish I had chemo first to know if I benefitted from it.

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  • Sian65
    Sian65 Member Posts: 99
    edited June 2012

    I think the standard of neoadjuvant chemo is for when the tumour is larger than 5cm.  This is to shrink it to enable clear margins for the mastectomy.

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