Looking for opinions on Chemo

Southern, 

Tough decision, I have seen some women get only 4-6 chemo infusions when there risk is not as high as some ( mine ). 

It sounds like your oncologists is not pushing the chemo, but suggesting rads & Tamoxifen. I would definitely do both of those. Radiation is a cake walk compared to chemo. 

You must be ER +, her-   ?

Southernbelle - even if you have chemo it will not guarantee cancer will not recur in future.  Once diagnosed with cancer we all have two different kinds of cancer cells, normal ones and stem cancer cells.  Chemo does NOT kill cancer stem cells and it is these that can create new cancers or recurrences in future.  Chemo only kills normal cancer cells - if you like the children of the mother (stem) cells.  So chemo will not give you what you want and for a 5% benefit could leave you worse off with side effects not to mention taking a year our of your life once chemo and rads are done..........chemo is not a cure all and is like killing your entire garden lawn to get a few weeds.  The tamoxifen may well do a lot more positive than chemo.......There are other things you can do to give more than a 5% survival benefit like diet, daily exercise etc....all of which have been studied and are not wacky or clinging to hope type ideas.  

I hope I have helped and not scared you. The reality is that there is no guarantee at all once you have had cancer once - good luck.

No the 5% is a 5% risk of what is the normal risk for someone with your statistics, it is not 5% of 100%.......I get you have no evidence of disease but you will still have cancer stem cells, same as me and everyone who has ever had cancer. All we can do is our best to ensure they do not get the food they need or the growth triggers to start breeding more cells again - hence Tamoxifen. Have a read here to see if it helps you - you might need to copy and paste the below in to your browser but its on this site

http://www.breastcancer.org/risk/understand/abs_v_rel

Thank you Southenrbelle4 for starting this thread and thank you Lily55 for the information on cancer stemcells (new to me). 

I am feeling lost at this moment, and looking to hear more opinions too. My tumour was removed with lumpectomy (1.7x1.5mm) and because it's HER2+, my surgeon says "you will need chemo" which scares me, and thus far, an oncologist and a breast cancer researcher said the same thing. The oncologist goes further to say i need Herceptin, which my surgeon thinks is not worth paying (RM150,000) for a 1% risk reduction.

All i wanted was plain, simple radiation and that's it! Now i've been googling and still not finding peace with chemotherapy..argghh.. i'm even wondering if my resistance to it would make me suffer from worse side effects..

Thanks Lily55, my HEr2+ has been confirmed by two tests.. unfortunate. cos everything else about the tumour was "not too threatening"... this chemo issue is really keeping me awake unnecessary.. shall just shut down and zzzz.. it's 1am where I am now!

Keepthefaith, would you share more about the side effects you and whether it's "cleared" by now? Those would be the drugs I'd take if I choose Herceptin.. and I am so worried about side effects.. from losing hair permanently on Cytoxan to having nerve problems for life on Taxotere.. gosh.. i feel i won't do myself justice if i don't research enough before making a decision, yet the more i read, the greater the anxiety at times.. do share please!

for 5% i wouldn't do it.  I had one dose of taxotere and still have neuropathy and very slow hair growth (less than an inch in over 6 months). I have a 30% chance of recurrence and am still relieved that chemo was cancelled for me.  

I think it is an individual choice though. If you would obsess over the 5% then it might be worth suffering the side effe ts to feel that you did all you could. The fact that your doctor said she probably wouldn't do it should set your mind at ease somewhat.

i have triple negative grade 3 which is considered aggressive. I was told that with chemo there was 20% chance of recurrence and without chemo it went up to 30%.

My chemo was stopped after the first dose because the taxotere caused diverticulitis and i spent 2 days in hospital resolving that. The oncologist said that taxotere was known to cause bowel perforation and he didn't want to kill me so would stop.

Some days imthink i'm cured and some days i imagine it has returned. I think we will worry no matter what but quality of life is important and chemo decreases that in some cases.

It is not an easy decision. I hope you can make one you are comfortable with. Best of luck to you.