Success of Chemo before Surgery

Hi Cyndi:  I had neoadjuvant chemo (AC and T) for 6 months prior to surgery.  The 6 cm tumor shrunk a lot so that it was at least operable.  I had a MRM in Dec.  The pathology report showed many nodes still with cancer in them.  So, I guess you could say I'm a partial responder.  I'm now going through radiation and additional oral chemo.

HI,

I had neo- Femara instead of neo chemo because of the relative lack of response to chemo for ILC.I  had a partial response. The ILC guru, Dr, CHristifinilli- MDA- has published a study in which ILC neo response to chemo is a not as prognostic as in IDC- IE the women often do better than their chemo response would suggest. A sudy from FRance, somewhere on this board ,suggests that since the response to chemo is so modest, immediate surgery is really the best tx. Then chemo, rads if indicated and always hormones if ER+ and HER if Her + Beth

I'm strongly er/pr+ and my Femara (hormone therapy, pre-adjuvant) has stopped my cancer in its tracks.  I'm stage IV with bone mets that are 'blastic and those are "stable" and the > 5cm breast tumor is greatly reduced(80%) (I've had fibrous thickening since 15yrs of age and I'm now 67) and blood markers  have dropped like a rock.  No surgery in sight  or other changes in treatment unless/until I get resistant to Femara.

From what I have learned so far, response to chemo isn't as important in ILC as in IDC. You can be hopeful, I think, that the chemo will help you. I had pleomorphic lobular cancer. I was told this responds differently than ILC, so I don't know if this information will be of use to you. I had an MRI, SNB, dose dense AC X 4, mastectomy, MRI, then AC x 2. My tumors, there were many, shrank from nodules to "discontinuous nests", but the cancer didn't go away completely. The MRI indicated greater than 90% reduction. Chemosensitivity testing done after surgery indicated that the residual cancer cells would not respond to any other chemos except AC, so that is why I had two more AC after surgery and not a Taxane. My chemo ended in Jan. 2006. I'm on Femara now. My tumor was ER+PR-. Femara may not work, so I hope with everything that's in me that the chemo worked.

Hi Nash, yes, that's what I was told. I was so worried about prognosis, still am, who am I kidding, that I went to see the pathologist. He really wanted to help me understand my cancer, but told me there was no way of knowing my prognosis. Was he telling me all he knows? I don't know. Do you feel that we are a bit isolated from the other ILC's and IDC's because we're pleomorphic? I feel that way sometimes.