9 cm mass in breast

queenam
queenam Member Posts: 8
edited December 2014 in Chemotherapy - Before, During, and After

Hi,

this is my first time here. i have really small breast. the cancer is 9 cms and is localised. i have had 5 sessions of taxol but the size has hardly diminished. i am concerned since the doctors want the cancer to be reduced before they cut. i would like to know if anyone knows why the cancer have hardly decreased in size and how long does chemo last before there is an actual decrease. can doctors remove a mass of that size? i was told that the mass must reduce because i do not have enough skin to cover the area when if it is removed at 9 cm.

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  • MeToo14
    MeToo14 Member Posts: 493
    edited December 2014

    I had a large tumor and had 6 rounds of chemo. Half way through I complained to my doctor that I didn't think is was getting much smaller. He thought maybe it was just scar tissue. He sent me to get an MRI and the results showed the tumor was completely gone. I can still feel hard areas but it is only scar tissue. I wonder if this is the case for you too. Have you expressed your concerns with your doctor?

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  • queenam
    queenam Member Posts: 8
    edited December 2014

    no, but it feels really hard and the shape keeps changing. what u said is new to me but i guess i would have to ask the doctor to do an MRI

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  • WinningSoFar
    WinningSoFar Member Posts: 951
    edited December 2014

    I had a similar situation in that I was inoperable unless the tumor got smaller. My breast surgeon was measuring it with ultrasound every month. Is that possible for you?

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  • queenam
    queenam Member Posts: 8
    edited December 2014

    no, they are measuring it with a measuring tape. i had only one ultra sound and that was at the beginning to determine what the mass was. where i live, when the government is responsible for the health care of cancer patients, we have to let them decide what they will do. i have not even had a CT scan as yet since there are 100s before me. i am thinking that i should go and pay privately to have all this done but i do not know. a doctor did tell me that an ultra sound just shows a mass, it does not explain anything etc

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  • WinningSoFar
    WinningSoFar Member Posts: 951
    edited December 2014

    A measuring tape? Sorry, I have never heard of anything like that. Maybe someone else has...you should start another topic like "Ever Heard of measuring tumor with Measuring Tape?".

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  • queenam
    queenam Member Posts: 8
    edited December 2014

    not a measuring tape, i meant what looks like an ordinary ruler. that is the only kind of measuring that i had done, after which the doctor told me that the size has not diminish much. i am really upset as i want the mass out of my body

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  • ElaineTherese
    ElaineTherese Member Posts: 3,328
    edited December 2014

    WinningSoFar,

    MO has measured my lump with a ruler during neoadjuvant chemo. (It seems to be shrinking.) But, now that I'm finishing chemo, I will get a PET scan and an MRI so my surgeon will have a more accurate idea of its size before he operates. I actually think that MRIs do a better job of determining size than US. US said that my tumor was 3.9 cm, but it was clearly larger than that (MRI said 5 cm).

    queenam,

    Will you just be getting Taxol? I think my tumor shrunk more on AC than Taxol.

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  • queenam
    queenam Member Posts: 8
    edited December 2014

    i am supposed to be getting adriamycin and cyclophosphamide every two weeks for 4 weeks after i have completed the taxol treatment. i a scheduled for my 6th round of taxol in 2 weeks so i am assuming that it should be my last. but i am really concern because i have to attend my other doc. who does he measuring and will do the op in january and i would like to know that the mass is smaller

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  • queenam
    queenam Member Posts: 8
    edited December 2014

    How much sessions of Chemo does one get before they have Radio therapy? I will have my 6th session of taxol next week, i have been getting it every 2 weeks with a break of one month

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  • Morwenna
    Morwenna Member Posts: 1,063
    edited December 2014

    Your doctors should be able to tell you how many treatments they are planning to give you.

    I had surgery first (x2), then had four cycles of AC (every three weeks), and then taxol afterwards, in 12 weekly doses. Then radiation started 4 weeks post chemo, for 15 sessions.

    Where in the world do you live, if you don't mind me asking?

    I would suppose, if your tumour is really showing no response to taxol after 6 dose dense treatments, they might be considering a change, but none of us can really tell you what they will do next.

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  • mommacat4
    mommacat4 Member Posts: 215
    edited December 2014

    Hi,

    my tumor was not measured prior to mastectomy. At that time it was measured at 7.5cm on the pathology report. They did nothing for pretreatment of surgery. Cancer went into lymph node but the oncologist is waiting for insurance company to approve PET scan to find out where else it might have gone in my body. The oncologist did say his plans at this point are 5 Months of chemotherapy, radiation, then 10 years of tomoxifin. This plan may change after PET scan.

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  • queenam
    queenam Member Posts: 8
    edited December 2014

    i live in the Caribbean, i was told just yesterday that the mass has decrease by 2 cms. i will be switched to a combination of adriamycin and cyclophosphamid which are stronger and should attack the mass more aggressively than the Taxol. however, we are awaiting the results of my ECHO before i am started on those new drugs. i am hopeful now

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  • queenam
    queenam Member Posts: 8
    edited December 2014

    i would like to know if any of you guys have ever known or heard of a case where the mass in the breast was diagnosed with an ultra sound as an abscess but was treated as a cancer? is it possible? i ask because i was told of this mature lady whose breast was removed only to be discovered that the lump was not cancer at all.

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