Chemo before surgery

From what I understand, they will do it first to try to shrink the tumor, which can probably give you more options for surgery. For me, I had surgery first and just started chemo. I am really small breasted, so regardless of tumor size, a lumpectomy wasn't an option.

I'm really surprised they were able to tell you a stage already; my doctor couldn't tell me stage until the pathology report came back from my mastectomy.

it also helps them to see how the cancer responds to the chemo. But I also did surgery first, due to the circumstances around my diagnosis.

Didn't see tumor size in your sig line, but if it's quite large, chemo is used to shrink it so that surgery can have a better result overall. I support previous post suggesting second opinion, too. My lumpectomy was actually an excisional biopsy, so I didn't have any choice but to have the problem out first, and then find out what it was.

Claire in AZ

My understanding is chemo first is to shrink the tumor down so maybe a lumpectomy can be done instead of mastectomy. In my case I had lymph node involvement, I had chemo first because sometimes you can get a complete pathological response, which means the cancer is at that time, undetectable. But ,even though my tumor shrunk a lot, it was still there, and in my lymph nodes. Good luck, and it is never a bad idea to get second opinion. Doctors sometimes like to recommend what theyre familiar with, treatment wise.

After my yearly mammogram In June 2017, I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, stage 2, grade 3 (3cm x 2 cm in diameter) HER2/NEU Positive (3+1) in my right breast. I received treatments Docetaxel (Taxotere), Carboplatin (Paraplatin), Pertuzumab (Perjeta) before surgery.

When treatments of these cancer drugs ended, I was told the tumor had shrunk and no longer existed. On December 22, 2017 I had a complete mastectomy followed by reconstruction. The two lymph nodes that were surgically removed were cancer free eliminating the need of radiation. After surgery I continued to take Trastuzumab (Herceptin) for a year..

One of many side effects with the drug Taxotere, is permanent hair loss. I became one of those unlucky few who appears to have permanent baldness, loss of eyebrows and eye lashes due to this drug. While I thank God that all seems well with my health now, I am not happy with my hair loss. I was told the class action law suite against the Taxotere company are for those who received treatment before 2015 as this was before there was a warning label of this possible side effect. (FYI)