Tumor seems to be growing on ac chemo - help

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placid44
placid44 Member Posts: 497
edited March 2018 in Chemotherapy - Before, During, and After

I am triple negative. My tumor shrank thirty percent after first chemo but is bigger after second treatment. It initially got really small and soft after second treatment but then grew and got hard after only five days....that is the day of third treatment it is bigger and hard. I am having ultrasound tomorrow. I also have swelling under arm despite the fact that I only had one positive node....sentinel, small deposit.



I thought ac was the big guns for triple negative and I know not responding to chemo is a really bad sign. Are there other chemo drugs that those on message board have heard work? I am supposed todo taxol after ac but what else is there? How often do rumors progress/grow while on chemo? Can there be lymph node matasteses on chemo? I am gettingnpreadjuvant chemo. Thanks and hoping for quick replies so I can sleep tonight.

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  • blainejennifer
    blainejennifer Member Posts: 1,848
    edited September 2012

    It could be inflammation in the area from tumor flare - massive cell death will give that sort of response sometimes. So - no freaking! This could be a good thing. In fact, it is most likely. Or it could be the beginning of lymphedema - which is sucky but manageable.

    There are six separate families of chemotherapeutic drugs for TN. Not just drugs - families. Like the Taxanes are Taxol, Taxotere, Abraxane, etc. So, you have many, many regimens to blow through before throwing in the flag.

    While I may be ER/PR+, my bone mets are behaving like TN. So, I have just recently quizzed my Onc about the various regimens.

    Stay strong, sister. You can do this!

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  • Tweetyb422
    Tweetyb422 Member Posts: 119
    edited September 2012

    I had chemo before umx, had 4 dd a/c my tumor did get smaller, but not as small as they wanted, was trying for lumpectomy, so they gave me 2 dd taxols, had a pet scan and tumor looked to be growing, so had umx, but wad told path report showed good response, it was over 75% dead, so it was responding. Sometimes they kinda blow up while they are dying. Weird.

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  • placid44
    placid44 Member Posts: 497
    edited September 2012

    You are a genius. :). I saw breast surgeon today and she said the"growth" of the mass is highly likely to be inflammation/dead cells from the chemo killing the tumor. Your body absorbs the dead cells over time, but it can only (forgive me) "eat" so much so fast. She did ultrasound and it is only slightly smaller than before chemo started, but again, much of it could be dead cells. The ultrasound doesn't measure/can't tell how much of it is dead cells.



    She said the swelling under my arm is probably an infected hair and/or my lymph nodes reacting to the fact that I started chemo only four days after sentinel node biopsy. The snb incision did not have time to heal and the lymph nodes are feeling that. I did not have axillary dissection because only one sentinel node was positive, three other sentinel nodes negative. They just removed the four sentinel nodes.



    I just had third ac yesterday, final ac in two weeks, then twelve weeks taxol, weekly. They'll do MRI after six weeks of taxol.



    Thanks so much for your help.

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  • Hope99
    Hope99 Member Posts: 148
    edited March 2018

    bump

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