How soon did you start Chemotherapy

Mine was 3 weeks from the first MO appointment and that included doing the Oncotype and having a 2nd appointment to go over those results. She booked my chemo slot right away at the first appointment even while we were waiting for Oncotype because she said it's easier to cancel and this way I wouldn't have to wait & could start right away - assuming Oncotype came back as we expected (& it came back as way more than we expected so yeah, I was glad to have the chemo all pre-booked)

You do have a bit of a window according to the research "Overall, the authors found no evidence of adverse effects when patients started chemotherapy between 31-60 or 61-90 days after their surgery as compared to patients who started their chemotherapy in 30 days. However, for patients who started their chemotherapy 91+ days after their surgery the results weren't so good. These patients experienced worse overall survival (hazard ratio [HR], 1.34; 95% CI, 1.15-1.57) and worse breast cancer–specific survival (HR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.05-1.53)"

https://respectfulinsolence.com/2016/01/12/breast-...

i don’t intend to be flip

You had cancer before your lumpectomy. You haven’t posted details on your tumor but it’s the exception not the rule that breast cancer is a medical emergency. You have time to plan treatment and make decisions

Schedule the trip and enjoy it. You have no idea how you’ll react to chemo and if radiation is in the plan you are stuck in town for the radiation duration due to the daily treatment.

You’ll need some time to heal. I had a lumpectomy 3/13, didn’t meet with my MO until the third week in April, and had my first chemo 5/18 (right after my own fun family trip).

I hope you had the Oncotype test. Yours was a very small, grade 1 tumor which may not require chemo. I didn't need it and I even had micromets. Not very knowledgeable about Her2+. Maybe that is the reason they are planning to do chemo.

Hi all,

Just for a quick understanding of Her2+, standard of care is chemo and Herceptin and often Perjeta. They often won't do Mammaprint or Oncotype once they have determined Her2 status as it automatically makes you high risk. Herceptin is an incredible drug and game changer. Great Lifetime movie you can order on Amazon about the story of its discovery and the doctors and individuals who championed his work to bring Herceptin to Her2+ women and men. Inspiring. But Herceptin and chemo go hand in glove in the United States, as it was the way it was done in clinical trials over 20 years ago.

Best to all!

A little over a month from diagnosis. It would have been maybe a week sooner but something came up. I didn't have surgery first though.

urmysunshine17:

That sounds really fast. Did they do everything at the same facility?