Time between neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery(6 vs 8 weeks)?

My TX plan was different than most - I did neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemo. There are no absolutes as to the best TX for all of us.

4 DD A/C neoadjuvant, 2 weeks after last A/C had UMX. 3 weeks after UMX started 12 weekly Taxol adjuvant. A week after last Taxol started 25 rads. A week after starting rads, I started Femara. This is not the TX plan most do but is want my Drs wanted me to do and it worked for me - this Aug will be 7 yrs and still NED.

My doctor did not alloe surgery until a year after my chemo, having stage IV & IBC

Terri

For those replying who are not IBC (Inflammatory Breast Cancer), the TX plans and time frames are different than for other types. IBC is rare - only between 1% - 5% of all DXd types of BC.

With IBC, it is either Stage III or IV when DXd. It is very aggressive and rapid in presentation - hours/days matter. It presents differently thus neoadjuvant chemo is imperative. For me, neoadjuvant A/C was done to get it so Surgeon had a good chance of 'getting 'it'. No, never expected a 'complete response' but to get it to shrink, form into a 'lump' with good margins instead of the 'nest'/'bands' it forms as. Then once removed, hit with adjuvant chemo to 'finish the job' with rads as a last 'back up'

Reconstruction surgery was 'forbidden' for at least a year - mastectomy was part of the TX plan and was between neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemo. We are each unique!

The "odds" of making it to 5 yrs when IBC are DRASTICALLY less than all other types combined. When I saw my Drs a year after DX, they all said they had never expected me to make it to a year - this Aug will be 7 yrs since DX and still living and loving life everuday and still NED.