Has anyone chosen not to do chemo?

It’s a tough call that only you can make because it’s your body, your life. Fortunately, I didn’t have to have chemo and honestly if it was recommended I would have had second thoughts about doing it.

Having said that my BC was early stage IDC. I was Stage 1b, Grade 1. I had a lumpectomy and 33 radiation treatments. I dodged chemo because of my Oncotype score of 11. Have they suggested that test to you?

Then there’s the DX of triple negative BC which is very aggressive. While there are no guarantees most women with your DX want to throw everything at the disease so they opt for chemo. No one wants to do it but a lot of ladies have said it’s not as bad as they thought it would be. Check out the ladies on this website who have had chemo. They can give you tips and advice that will help you through it.

Whatever you decide it’s a personal decision but also one that you don’t want to second guess yourself or look back and wonder what if…

Good luck whatever you decide and keep the faith.

Diane

I was hormone negative, Her2 positive, also a very aggressive cancer. With Stage 3, it’s kind of a no-brainer that chemo will be part of the treatment. But even if it was stage 1, I would have opted for chemo. The recurrence/metastases rates are just too high for me to have felt comfortable with no chemo. As everyone says, it’s up to you but ask lots of questions. And although it’s not pleasant, chemo is definitely do-able and it is over before you know it

I am triple negative and chose to do chemo. I was told that Taxotere could cause a bowel perforation because I have diverticulosis. A few days after the first dose i was in hospital with bowel bleeding and diverticulitis and had to be monitored. I was cut off chemo.

It has been 9 years with just double mastectomy and no radiation or chemo and I am NED (no evidence of disease)

Because I developed neuropathy from the one dose i am relieved that I was cut off. I avoided many other side effects so often think that I dodged a bullet by not having chemo but if my daughter was diagnosed I think I would recommend that she do chemo.

My type of TNBC (Metaplastic) does not respond well to chemo but I found that out after the fact as well so hindsight and all that.

Just one more experience here to confuse you. It might be worth it to ask for more testing to see how likely yours is to respond or you might be one who doesn't experience many side effects.

Sorry you are faced with this diagnosis and the decision.

I had HER2 positive, also considered an aggressive cancer, but luckily a little more treatable than triple negative. I never questioned doing chemo and honestly it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It w sucked — a lot — no getting around that, but it was not nearly the horrible experience my imagination conjured. Chemo is doable. If it was a less aggressive cancer or chemo was of questionable value the equation would be different , but if the MO recommends chemo then I would do it.

Your original question asked: what are the ramifications of skipping chemo, and the answer is that you risk a recurrence or a spread — and once breast cancer goes to stage IV it is considered incurable and you will likely spend the rest of your life getting treated until you run out of treatment options. I know that sounds horrible and terrifying — but that is the cold, hard truth. Breast cancer when caught early is curable for most women — but once it spreads beyond the breast and lymph nodes the equations change dramatically.

I would find a strong chemo forum in this community and you and your husband should both read through it to see what other women in similar circumstances experienced. Some women have to quit early or have terrible side effects, but for most of us it’s not nearly as bad as we thought it would be.

good lick

I have a scared husband, too. He said exactly what your's said, and even stated after my first chemo that he didn't want me to do it again. I didn't get mad or upset although it was hard to hear. Obviously you want your partner's opinion to be your's when you do something this scary and all consuming. But I told him that I wasn't doing chemo for now, I was doing it for 15 years from now. I wanted those points taken off my recurrence rates. Any points I can get taken off my recurrence is worth any action. Anyway I have no judgment over fear. We are all fearful of this. But you do need to make the best decision for you. I will say now that I'm halfway through, 3/4 of the way through on Friday, he's stopped expressing that opinion. Probably because I'm doing okay and everything I did before. Some days I may be slower doing it but life has not even remotely stopped. Most of us on chemo do our same life as before. It's not always pretty, it's rather horrible what it does to you, but you get over it thankfully, and even while doing it find ways to just continue on. And then we get to know we did everything we could do to make sure 15 years from now, we'll still be here.