Chemo recommendation questions

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Deamo1
Deamo1 Member Posts: 193
edited July 2018 in Just Diagnosed

I just read my oncologist report from my initial meeting. Mastectomy is scheduled in 5 days and I know everything depends on the final biopsy. What does "initial recommendation of chemotherapy is Adriamycin-based chemotherapy with dose dense Adriamycin Cytoxan followed by weekly paclitaxel." mean? I looked up "dose dense" and it means strong and hard doses with many side effects. It made me ill just to read that. Anyone have any info on that for me. :(

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  • Castigame
    Castigame Member Posts: 752
    edited June 2018

    deamo1,

    I was in your shoes not too long ago.

    Lets get thru the surgery first because it is the first strike againt this bleeping disease and believe me you will feel a huge relief.

    2nd strike aka additonal insurance aginst this bleep is chemo. Your paragraph likely means 4 dose dense chemos every two weeks followed by 12 weekly chemos. In total 20 weeks(4×2=8 plus 12 wks) Side effects vary and there are many ways to counteract those. Chemo sucks no doubt. I did 8 dose dense chemos. Lost weight (gained all back after treatments) lost all hair( my chemo curl is incredibly beautiful) there is neither side effect or after effect for me at this time. I had temporary neuropathy for 2 mos after final chemo. But remember you have one choice to make which is staying alive.

    Breathe. You will get thru the surgery and more.

    PM if you would like.

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  • Deamo1
    Deamo1 Member Posts: 193
    edited June 2018

    Thank you for explaining that Castigame. It just frightens me so much. My tolence for drugs is horrible. Tylenol kills my gut.

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  • Meow13
    Meow13 Member Posts: 4,859
    edited June 2018

    deamo, are you have hormone receptors? What is yor her2 status?

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  • Deamo1
    Deamo1 Member Posts: 193
    edited June 2018

    Meow13, ER was 93, PR was 98 (strong on both) HER2-

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  • Meow13
    Meow13 Member Posts: 4,859
    edited July 2018

    That is good, hormone treatment should be effective. Why chemo?

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  • Meow13
    Meow13 Member Posts: 4,859
    edited July 2018

    I guess you already did chemo but not sure why, wouldn't hormone therapy be better for you?

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  • Deamo1
    Deamo1 Member Posts: 193
    edited July 2018

    I don't know why. I'm questioning that also. I know it all depends on the final biopsy but the Oncologist walked in and said #1 dbl mastectomy #2 chemo #3 hormone therapy #4 radiation.

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  • Deamo1
    Deamo1 Member Posts: 193
    edited July 2018

    No I haven't done any chemo. Just diagnosed June 18th

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited July 2018

    Normally, radiation is done before hormone treatment--radiation is part of "active treatment" and normally isn't simultaneous with hormone suppression.

    The chemo recommendation depends on what's found in the surgery, but the preliminary rec may be based on the imaging.

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  • Deamo1
    Deamo1 Member Posts: 193
    edited July 2018

    I may have gotten the order wrong. I've been so confused with all this. Thank you

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited July 2018

    It might help to take notes during the visit if you're not already doing that, or asking for someone to do this for you. It is really hard to hold onto all of the information!

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  • moth
    moth Member Posts: 4,800
    edited July 2018

    dose dense just means it's given more frequently - usually every two weeks for the AC portion, instead of every 3. That's the protocol I had.

    Whether chemo is recommended or not is dependent on how aggressive your cancer is, your age, lymph node involvement etc. Also, you may qualify for the Oncotype test which examines some of the tumor cells and attempts to predict the risk of recurrence.

    Breast cancer is (usually) easily removed surgically but it can come back. Chemo, radiation & hormone therapy are all designed to reduce the risk of recurrence, especially metastatic recurrence, which is not curable.

    Hang in there. Once the final pathology is in, you'll get a treatment recommendation from your oncologist and if you want, you can get second opinions. If you want to know actual stats, your oncologists can give you recurrence statistics. Of course there's no way of knowing whether you'll find yourself in the recurring category or not. Part of the MOs expertise is the ability to assess and provide a suitable plan that minimizes side effects while maximizing the chance of a long life with no evidence of disease.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2018

    I had dose-dense AC. I asked for it, and my oncologist agreed, because the research I found that, in my high-risk situation, it seemed to protect me better from recurrence.

    BC.org posted an article about it some time ago. Here is the link.

    It wasn't as hard to get through as I thought it would be, either. And good news is that the overall treatment time of chemotherapy is shortened somewhat.

    https://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/dose-de...


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  • Deamo1
    Deamo1 Member Posts: 193
    edited July 2018

    Thank you for the link. Good info!

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