An Interesting Breast Cancer Story

An ER+ bc at 92? Duh. I think any oncologists who’d have tortured this woman with major surgery & rads (G-d forbid, chemo!) should have their licenses pulled. When did patients become their tumors instead of living, breathing people with comorbidities and feelings??? I think every medical school curriculum should include teaching a sense of perspective and proportion!

I had a long-time client who was diagnosed at 91 with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I asked what treatment she was getting, and she replied “watching & waiting--I feel fine; and when I start feeling not fine they’ll just try to make me feel better until my number’s up.” She made it to 95, with only home hospice in her final month.

there are some clinical trials using neoadjuvent AI treatment. I guess this case shoes why it may work for some

Interesting story and point of view. I completely agree that common sense should dictate that a 92 year old newly diagnosed ER+ breast cancer patient skip surgery, chemo and rads.

What I also don't understand is the application of linear breast cancer treatments....chemo or surgery first, then rads, with anti-hormonals bringing up the rear.

I was diagnosed with highly ER+ breast cancer at the beginning of December and there was no doubt that AI's would be in my future. I have never understood why I was not prescribed an AI immediately. The whole process of making a surgical decision and then waiting for oncotype DX results to make the chemo decision, meant in my case that it was 2 1/.2 months before any active treatment (surgery) started and another 2 months before chemo. I guess it might make sense to stop the AI during chemo, but where is the science that we can't take AI's until we have had our surgery and chemo? There are some oncs who do not prescribe AI's until after rads are done, so at least I was able to start AI as soon as chemo was finished. Just seems silly to me.

If I had it to do over again, I would have insisted on taking an anti-hormonal right away and "perhaps" stopped while chemo was in progress. What if the administration of AI's in that first 4 1/2 months was a game changer?

MsP

Nice story. I was wondering about treatment changes. My mother had BC in 1999 at the age of 71. I have a copy of her pathology report from the biopsy, which says "infiltrating ductal carcinoma. Maximal tumor diameter 1.1 cm. Resection margins: Negative, but tumor approaches to within less than 1mm of the superior margin. Histologic grade, II, Nuclear Grade: II". It was also negative for ER and PR. They didn't test for Her2. So she was likely triple negative. I know that she had a UMX - not sure if she was offered a lumpectomy with rads or UMX but she chose UMX. I recall reading her mastectomy path report - it said no cancer found - they got the entire tumor in the biopsy. But my question is, do you think a woman today with a triple negative 1 cm IDC would have such little treatment? no rads, no AI's, no chemo. By the way, she is 88 and still doing well. thanks