waiting on treatment

bean4865
bean4865 Member Posts: 64
edited June 2014 in ILC (Invasive Lobular Carcinoma)
waiting on treatment
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • bean4865
    bean4865 Member Posts: 64
    edited January 2008

    This Friday Jan. 25 i will be six weeks post-op. I will meet with oncologist on Monday to discuss treatment. My regular oncoogist is out sick with pnuemonia and will not be back until Feb. I will be seeing one of the oncologsts and we will discuss my treatment. I was getting very frustrated because I just want to put this all behind me but now I am nervous. I am afraid of chemo...hopefully I won't need it, but then I am scared it will not all be gone or something...I think I am going nuts. I had a 2.1 cm ILC with extensive LCIS. (MRI showed 8 cm but was mostly LCIS). 17 lymph nodes all clean. Tumor is er/pr + and her2 neg. I did have second surgery last week for clean margins. Surgeon is confident all is clear, but still waiting for path. Has anyone in similar situation as me not had to have chemo or am I living on high hopes?

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Hattie
    Hattie Member Posts: 414
    edited January 2008

    You have a lot of good things--ER+, node neg, small tumor. I don't know about chemo, but I did it and am glad. If you need to, you can do it. If not, move on. It's easier when you know which way to go, when you have more info.



    Take care,

    --hattie

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • billsgirl
    billsgirl Member Posts: 39
    edited January 2008

    Kathleen,

    My story is almost exactly like yours, including the scary MR report. Bilateral mastectomy, recon with exp. Path said Stage 1 but grade 2. The grade pushed my onc to suggest chemo. He sat and reviewed a computer program with me where you plug in age, ER+, Hr-, grade, clear margins, 0 nodes etc and I can reduce my rate of recurrence from 30% to 11%. Those were pretty good odds for me. I too thought after the path report, I was going to get lucky with no chemo but am glad I'm doing it.

    I started chemo on 1/11 and am doing dose dense (ACx4 every 2 weeks, then Tx4 every week. No rads) I have been very fortunate and have suffered very few se. It is doable for sure. Read up, be prepared with some things that will help se, drink, drink, drink. And know that you are not alone. The worst time for me was the anxiety before starting. But once I got started, I felt like I had more control. One tx down - 7 to go!

    I wish you the best with your decisions. God bless you during this anxious time.

    ~Robin

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited January 2008
    I think that the presence of LCIS puts you at a higher risk of recurrence. At least that's what I was told. And that prompted me to have the Prophylactic done. You may want to ask about the higher risk. Best wishes to you...although chemo is not a pleasant thing, it really is do-able. I was petrified at my first infusion. I felt as though I was walking into a death chamber. But it went very smoothly and it soon became routine. Just think...if you do chemo, by summer you'll have it all behind you.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited January 2008

    With your grade 1, you may be able to just do HT. Chemo isn't as effective on grade 1 tumors as on grade 2 or 3.

    Your age is a consideration. As I was 38 at diagnosis, and a grade 2, 2.7 cm tumor, I did chemo.

    Definately have oncotype dx done. That may help your chemo decision. I scored an 18, which is the very low end of intermediate risk, which didn't help all that much, but if I'd scored a 7 or something low like that, I probably would've skipped chemo. The way my onc explained oncotype to me was that it measures how sensitive your tumor is to hormones, and thus hormonal therapy. The lower the score, the more HT responsive it is. 

    I chose to leave my LCIS in my breast. LCIS is a marker of an elevated risk of getting bc, but as you already have bc, it's sort of moot. I was comfortable with biannual MRI's for monitoring for new primaries/local recurrence. I'm more concerned with mets than with another primary, but that's just my opinion in my circumstances and isn't right for everyone.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories