Anyone else out there on the younger side of diagnosis?

Hey McClure45, I'm 34 years old and was diagnosed last September (see stats at the end of my profile). It was a shock, most docs thought I was too young, according to the stats- I'm 1 in 220 ladies who do get it in my age range, but as shocking as it is, we have to be strong 😀

I had surgery within 2 weeks of being diagnosed, then chemo 4 weeks later. I'm on dose dense TAC (adminstered every 2 weeks) for 4 months. My last chemo is in 2 weeks and I cannot wait, although I haven't found it to be too bad.

I start rads in early March and also hormone therapy shortly. I've decided to go with aromasin (al) and zoladex (ovarian suppressor), rather tamoxifen,as research shows better results at reducing recurrence in young women (under 40) 😀

I was 35 and had just gotten married. My tumor was almost 6 cm but I did chemo first so I will never know for sure the full extent of it except for what the scans and surgery after showed. I too chose AI and ovarian suppression.

I was 25 with my first stage III diagnosis. Because I was so young at the time they kept wanting to dismiss any lumps as being a concern. Since then I have had it come back, double mastectomy, hysterectomy, multiple reconstructions, you name it I have had it. Ha ha. It's concerning to me that they always want to put an age on it. When the factsfor me show no age is ever too young. There is no family history of breast cancer. I was always healthy, a runner, stayed in shape so I never would've fit the mold.

Hi,

I was 33 at the time of diagnoses. Just got married the year before and trying to get over a miscarriage and trying to get pregnant again. I realized it was cancer on my first wedding anniversary. I had an u/s on the same breast the year before and there was nothing so it went from no lumps to a few of them in 6 months (I was pregnant for 2 of them it was gorging on ER/PR).

I am coming up on my second anniversary and I don't like living in constant fear but there is nothing I can do about it.

My grandma died of BC at 55 but my cancer was not genetic. I guess I was luckier than the others.

As Bad_At_Usernames said the hardest thing about being diagnosed at this young age is the limitations it puts on the fertility. We have 6 embryos but DH doesn't want me to get pregnant and no matter how much I keep bringing it up he's not changing is mind. So it will be the surrogacy way.

I have tried searching for the implications of being under 35 at Dx and some of that info wasn't very encouraging. I know it will come back one day it is just a matter of when.

My MO is keeping me on tamoxifen becasue there have been more studies on tamoxifen Vs the OS+AI and personally I didn't like me when I was on chemopause so I am fine with the added 2% (+/-) increased risk of just being on tamoxifen.

Hi there! I was diagnosed at 34, no family history and no genetic component. Only risk factors I can think of were hormonal fertility treatments two years prior, and tons of stress. Its really weird to be diagnosed so young. I guess I'm lucky that I was kind of coming to terms with infertility before diagnosis. My heart goes out to all of you with cancer treatment infertility.

I was diagnosed at the age of 40 - I had just turned 40 and went for my very first baseline mammogram. Three weeks later I was diagnosed. I am almost done with Herceptin - finish in June, and I am on Lupron (OS) plus tamoxifen.

My hair is growing back, I'm not so tired all the time, my energy is returning. but I too feel old, as if this whole process has aged my body greatly. I am thankful they caught it early, thankful to be alive, and I was fortunate enough that I had had my family - a boy and a girl. I had wanted a third, and that's now totally out of the cards. My cancer was EXTREMELY hormone sensitive and so I have been cut off!

No family history, no genetic defect...I did smoke when I was younger. Who knows... it was the last thing I was expecting on a balmy April morning..."Could you come into the office in person, I'd like to talk with you about your results before I go away on vacation". Umm what?

I think there is a tendency for docs to misdiagnose cancer in young women until later stages, because they think its unlikely and that would explain why we all have such large tumours, plus of course that they seem to grow at rapid rates (grades 2/3).

My tumour didn't show up on my initial mammogram at all, but came up as a dark shadow on the ultrasound. I was told to come back in in 6 months to see if there were any changes and then a biopsy would be conducted. I think 6 months is a ridiculously long time to wait and i'm so thankfully i went on instinct and back earlier within 3 months. I was stage 3 by the time they diagnosed me, god knows what could have happened if i had waited any longer.

I have no history of breast cancer in my immediate family, but the further i investigate into my extended, i've found two ladies in my family who have died from it (in their 30s and also 50s), but we are talking 20 years ago. I'm getting tested for the BRCA genes, but if i do have it, its likely to come from my fathers line, which is interesting because as i don't have any sisters, i wouldn't really know.

I haven't started hormone therapy as yet, but have been on zoladex to shut down my ovaries whilst on chemo for the past 4 months. The worst by far is the hot flushes, i tend to get about 4/5 a day and its always like clockwork around 9pm, before i go to bed and into the night. I've also found dryness down there to be a bit of an issue, which is a bit depressing especially for my husband but i'm looking forward to finishing chemo in 2 weeks and been buying moisturisers which will hopefully help, once my immune system has recovered a bit.

I have no children and had 2 embryos frozen via IVF prior to chemotherapy. I am ER positive (90%), PR (30%) but my oncologist has advised i wait at least 2/3 years before trying to have children. All going well, I would like them down the track and i'm not deterred because of my ER/PR status. My oncologist has told me that studies have shown pregnancy in general does not bring on breast cancer itself (that it's very rare and that women who go on to have children have a lower risk of recurrence than those who don't, but this may be down to other factors, such as healthier lifestyle.

Here's an interesting article about the risk of recurrence and getting pregnant after bc. http://www.ecco-org.eu/Global/News/EBCC8-PR/2012/03/21_03-Pregnancy-is-safe-for-women-with-oestrogen-receptor-positive-breast-cancer.aspx

thanks Lottemarine, I have shown that study to DH but he is still against it. I guess his fear is that if there is any dormant cells anywhere they would "awake" and start making a home somewhere else in the body and continue to feed on the hormones and it doesn't help that the MO was not support. She said that I could be on tamoxifen for 2 years and then try but she wasn't 100 percent on board.

I have come to terms with that now. I just want the baby!!

Bad_at_Usernames - I hope that too but I know my changes of progressing are 25-30% and that my stress level is the same as before diagnosis and after. With the moodiness from Tamoxifen I wonder if it has become worse. I know that this kind of cancer can come 10+ years after first Dx and that my fear. I will have my lil happy life and family and booom it back. I try not to think of it but being Dx at age unde 35 scares me. I guess only time will tell.

McClure - my dryness is worse on the outside part especially after AF. The entire area is sore. Gyno said it's because of Tamoxifen. I am starting to hate it!!

Stephmoen it sucks having cancer and especially at a young age!!!

I was on tamoxifen for 3 years and have just switched to zoladex and Femara plus Zometa.

According to my oncologist aromataseinhibitors might prevent recurrence better than tamoxifen and when adding Zometa to prevent boneloss it should also protect against bone mets.

I don't know how much better AIs are supposed to work but having quite many SE on tamoxifen I was ready to try something new. So far no change in SE.

edited to add I was 32 at diagnosis, 2 children, tumorsize not exactly known but calcifications 7x6 cm nothing after neoadj chemo but 1 lymph node plus 2 sentinel nodes before chemo.

to me chemo was worse although tamoxifen hasnt been easy either.

I think in my case the reason tamoxifen was chosen at first was because of side effects not included boneloss, and they were waiting for studies to back up the benefits of AIs.

http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/ovary-su...

When the researchers looked at the women who had received chemotherapy before, they found that Aromasin plus ovarian suppression reduced the risk of recurrence more than tamoxifen plus ovarian suppression or tamoxifen alone. Five years after treatment, the numbers of women who had not had a recurrence were:

• 78.0% of the women treated with tamoxifen
• 82.5% of the women treated with tamoxifen plus ovarian suppression
• 85.7% of the women treated with Aromasin plus ovarian suppression

I had an oopherectomy and take Aromasin I don't regret my decision at all I had the oopherectomy in novemeber besides some aches and hot flashes I don't have many side effects im also on Prolia