My Mom just diagnosed

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  • RyanT
    RyanT Member Posts: 19
    edited August 2017

    Momine & LisaAlissa, thank you so much for your input!

    They said my mom qualifies because her tumor is 3cm (it has to be between 2cm-3cm) she's postmenopausal and no mets. That is their criteria in a nutshell. They are doing this to see if they can shrink the cancer before surgery and how effective these medications are. They explained that chemo is not always responsive to lobular cancer and the woman they have done this clinical trial on before have shown great progress and shrunk the cancer significantly. But of course they would monitor my mom every 2 weeks, I believe they said, and we can opt out at any time for whatever reason. I am still reading up about it which is why I value your opinions and will run this by my mom.

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  • JoyJ
    JoyJ Member Posts: 1
    edited September 2017

    Hi RyanT. My mom was recently diagnosed (Mid August) originally with Stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma while living in Texas. She decided to come back to Los Angeles for treatment and family support and is now being treated at Cedars-Sinai. I was looking up information about the exact study you mentioned that your mom is considering. Because my mom is now in Stage 3 and is ER+, PR+ HER2-negative, post menopausal, and has a larger tumor size, she has been selected for the clinical study as well. She also has two lymph nodes affected and her breast cancer is highly estrogen driven (92-96%). Could you share with me if your mom decided to enter the study instead of undergoing neoadjuvant chemo and if so, what her current results are on the therapy? My mom has agreed to the study but is still a little on the fence about it - as they told her she can quit and switch to chemo at any time. She has a terrible time with biopsies (as they are super painful for her) and the study requires she undergo two more. I hope everything is working out well for your mom and was so sad to read about how awful her initial diagnosis & treatment was handled. Take care!

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  • RyanT
    RyanT Member Posts: 19
    edited September 2017

    JoyJ,

    I'm very sorry your mom is going through this. I know it must be hard for you and your family. My thoughts and prayers to you all. To answer your question - Yes, my mom did decide to do the clinical trial. After much drama with insurance she officially started last week! So far, so good. She got the "Arm" with two medications-- Fulvestrant and Anastrozole. She has had very little side effects. She only complains about cold sweats but for the most part she is going about her normal life and routine. The biopsies have been fine as well. In fact my mom just did another one and said it wasn't that painful at all, but of course everyone's experience with that is different.

    It seems like our moms have a very similar diagnosis, but I notice you said she has ductal. Did you mean lobular?

    If you have anymore questions I am more than happy to share our experience. It's nice to know someone else is going through the same process as us. Sometimes it can feel very confusing and overwhelming, especially as we try to support our mothers, but as the months have gone by I'm getting a better grasp on everything and my mom's in much better spirits.

    Wishing you all the best. Please keep me posted!

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