^wow, only four distant recurrences in 6.5 years for women in that study (out of 410 women). Those are pretty good odds.

I'm trying to do some reading and was wondering if there are any statistics that talk about recurrence with AIs (Arimidex (anastrozole), Aromasin (exemestane) and Femara (letrozole). I found this link: https://www.healio.com/hematology-oncology/breast-... I am not 100% sure that is a great link.

It says this: Five years of adjuvant endocrine therapy, or hormone therapy, can reduce recurrence risk by about 50% and mortality risk by 30%.

I see my MO's PA tomorrow and was going to ask her, but anyone know the recurrence rate for those drugs (is one better than the other)? I'm having some trouble with anastrozole; knee pain, leg cramps, some headaches. I take supplements, but added 4000 IU vitamin D, a fizzy magnesium drink along with Slow Mag and Hyland's Leg Cramps pills (I think they have quinine) and they help. I'm trying. I ordered the brand-name Arimidex from Eagle Pharmacy before it went up to $60, thankfully, and the leg cramps have subsided, thank God, for now. My next script will be the Teva generic from Walgreens to see if that is better. Your help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

Edited: I found this interesting, maybe this will help someone.

The Types of Aromatase Inhibitors
Currently, there are three AIs used, which include exemestane (Aromasin), letrozole (Femara) and anastrozole (Arimidex). AIs are given to post-menopausal women who have tumors that express estrogen receptors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved these drugs to be used in the following ways:

Arimidex has been approved for women with early-stage breast cancer following surgery. This is a Type 2 "non-steroidal inhibitors," which stops the activity of aromatase, but not permanently.

Aromasin has been approved for women with early-stage breast cancer who have taken tamoxifen for two to three years. This is a Type 1 "steroidal inhibitor," which stops the activity of aromatase permanently.

Femara has been approved for women with early-stage breast cancer following surgery, and for women with early-stage breast cancer who have finished five years of tamoxifen. This is a Type 2 "non-steroidal inhibitors," which stops the activity of aromatase, but not permanently.
https://www.fredhutch.org/content/dam/public/Treatment-Suport/survivorship/Healthy-Links/Aromatase Inhibitors.pdf

Friends, it's been a while since I have posted. It's so nice to see your posts and encouraging thoughts. Yesterday morning on my cancer side, I discovered a lymph node under my ear and very close to my jaw line is hard and tender. I'm 3 years out from original diagnoses. At first my heart sank, but my BS said to watch it for a few weeks. Anyone else have this happen

Bird

As Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part.

Hi Jkeet

If you get mouth sores (I did) even though I gargled with baking soda every time I went to the bathroom and then some - Rx "Mary's Magic Mouth Wash" worked great for me. My Insurance wouldn't pay - but with coupons I paid about $45.00. well worth it. Some say it didn't work for them, but I hear that the drugstore makes it up and some have different ingredients. CVS did its magic. I also had a difficult time managing the Big D/ Big C (I'd rather have Diarrhea than Constipation) About the 3rd round I had it down to a fine art. Once I was on Herceptin only, I had no issues. I iced both my fingers and crunched on ice during Taxotere - the Infusion Center provided the Ice bags.

Totally agree with Cowgirl13 - take nausea meds Before you become nauseous. I'd set my alarm and take them around the clock.

I hear using plastic forks/spoon might help with the metallic taste. Best Of Luck!

I had a similar experience. I noticed a lump during my radiation. Drs said it was the expander. Then when I had the exchange surgery, it was still there. So they wanted me to see my bs. My bs did an ultrasound and she says it’s a fat necrosis:))))

thank you everyone for the advice on how to get through chemo. I’m on day 11 post first cycleand finally feel fine. Do people feel just as bad once chemo is done and you’re only taking Herceptin and Perjeta or are the side effects the same?

jkeet--I never did P but, yes--H was much easier than chemo but keep in mind it's not nothing. I was told to expect *no* SEs, but I definitely felt weird on H days and after several months started to feel kind of bad. It occurred to me I'd cut way back on my protein since finishing chemo, so from then on I made a point to eat red meat the two nights before H and I felt *much* better. I've come to be a big believer in protein, particularly when we're pumping chemicals into our system.

I had an ultrasound after 3 cycles showed the tumor had significantly reduced in size, probably by about 75%, then after 6 cycles , before surgery, I had an MRI and they no longer saw it, after surgery pathology showed complete response

$ I found a couple of things that I found very interesting. An explanation of aromatase and study titled lThe what, why and how of aromatase inhibitors: hormonal agents for treatment and prevention of breast cancer". Here are the links.

http://drplechner.com/learn/miscellaneous-articles/what-is-aromatase/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2228389/

The reason I found this interesting is I found out the 3 AI drugs treat aromatase differently and was wondering if one would be better than the other. Aromisin permanently disables aromatase enzymes when binding to them while Letrozole and Arimidex are AIs that only temporarily disabled aromatase enzymes. I’m going to ask my OC if it wouldn’t make sense to permanently disable aromatase enzymes. As a note, I think our bodies will continue to produce aromatase after we go off the AI but those enzymes that were bound could be either permanently effected or not depending on the frug you take. I’m sure I’m missing something but found this interesting

Will do hapa and your thoughts make sense. Identify see my Onc until November but it is on my list.

That's not very promissing. I try not to pay too much attention to numbers, I plan to outlive that.

Big Peaches, my doctor sent me better statistics and a note:

"Better estimate for your breast cancer. This is the uk predict model."

This does not show data in the perjeta era.

6 deaths due to other causes
11 breast cancer related deaths
4 extra survivors due to trastuzumab
7 extra survivors due to chemotherapy
8 extra survivors due to hormone therapy
64 survivors with surgery alone
Treatments after Surgery
Selected treatments after surgery are:
Hormone Therapy
Chemotherapy (3rd generation)
Trastuzumab
Hormone Therapy
Hormone therapy, or endocrine therapy, involves a woman taking drugs to prevent the growth of tumour cells that are boosted by the hormone oestrogen. Drugs of this kind include tamoxifen (brand names include Nolvadex, Istabul, Valodex, and Soltamox) and aromatase inhibitors such as anastrozole, exemestane, and letrozole (brand names Arimidex, Aromasin, and Femara). [1]
Some hormone therapy drugs act by blocking the action of oestrogen on the cells and some work by lowering the amount of oestrogen in the body (NB hormone therapy for breast cancer is the opposite of hormone replacement therapy or HRT, which is taken by women to help INCREASE oestrogen levels to help deal with side-effects of the menopause).
Treatments usually have the potential to cause harm as well as benefit. It is important to weigh up the risks of potential harm against the potential benefits of treatment in order to reach a decision. Some may cause more harm than benefit to some people.

[1] Source: www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/breast-cancer-drugs-set-for-preventative-use/
www.breastcancer.org/treatment/hormonal/serms/tamoxifen
www.breastcancer.org/treatment/hormonal/aromatase_inhibitors
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to weaken or kill cancer cells throughout the body. There are many different chemotherapy drugs which work on different kinds of tumour cell, and they are often given in combinations to maximise their effectiveness. The options in this web tool cover generic chemotherapy regimes used most commonly in England:
No chemotherapy at all
2nd gen is short for second-generation chemotherapy drug regimes such as FEC (fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide)
3rd gen is short for third-generation chemotherapy drug regimes that contain taxanes such as paclitaxel (Taxol) and docetaxel (Taxotere)
The definitions of the different chemotherapy regimes are found in the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group paper 'Comparisons between different polychemotherapy regimens for early breast cancer: meta-analyses of long-term outcome among 100?000 women in 123 randomised trials', published in Lancet, 2012.
High cumulative dose anthracylcine regimen were shown in the EBCTCG 2012 analysis to be equivalent to taxane based regimen and should be regarded as third generation.
Treatments usually have the potential to cause harm as well as benefit. It is important to weigh up the risks of potential harm against the potential benefits of treatment in order to reach a decision. Some may cause more harm than benefit to some people.
Trastuzumab
Trastuzumab, often known by the trade name Herceptin, is a drug that specifically targets HER2 positive tumours.
Treatments usually have the potential to cause harm as well as benefit. It is important to weigh up the risks of potential harm against the potential benefits of treatment in order to reach a decision. Some may cause more harm than benefit to some people.

missouricatlady - the three breast cancer classifications in this article are localized - in which is cancer confined to the breast only, regional - cancer in the breast and nodes, and distant - cancer that has spread outside of the region to bones/brain/lung/organs/other. It is important to note that this data is likely taken from SEER stats and means that all types of breast cancer subtypes are grouped together, regardless of level of aggressiveness. The first table shows which combinations of surgery/chemo/radiation that had been done by which stages. The survival chart shows that 61% of patients, at diagnosis, had cancer in the breast only, 32% had cancer in the breast and nodes, and 6% were diagnosed stage IV de novo. The corresponding five-year survival percentages were 99% for those with cancer in the breast only, 85% for those with breast and nodes, and 26% for those with distant metastasis.

When I put my numbers into Predict 2.0, the UK calculator, I am slightly better than the chart in the article suggests - my five year survival is 88%. I like the Predict calculator because it factors in Herceptin, whereas in the past Lifemath did not - Lifemath gives me 85%. As new treatments come along the calculators eventually add them in, so a new calculator will eventually include Perjeta.

Here are the links to both calculators:

Edited to add the most up to date version of Predict -

https://breast.predict.nhs.uk/tool

http://www.lifemath.net/cancer/breastcancer/condsurv/index.php

SpecialK, can I ask a question, I have looked at the predictor before but the thing that stumps me is the positive node question. Initially the ultrasound and MRI said no node involvement but the path report, after sentinel node removal, showed while no cancer cells there was scarring in one node which indicates cancer cells could have been present. I guess I’m not sure if I had node involvement but the path report might suggest there was. I don’t need anything else to worry about but I think it would be good to understand if there was a possibility that cells had migrated beyond the breast. My Onc and BS were not clear on this and didn’t seem to want to discuss this. I just want to understand, I know you can’t give me a definitive answer, I don’t think there are any when it comes to this, but just want to understand the possibilities, I’m very info driven.