surgery after chemo

[*_Julie_*]

Anybody had surgery done after chemotherapy after their initial diagnosis of BC. How long did you wait for the surgery after the last chemo treatment. I am done with my last Taxol on 6th of Jan and could get appointment for the surgery at the earliest only on 2nd Feb. I am just worried whether it is OK to wait that much for surgery after the last chemo.

I was diagnosed with stage 3b BC, her2+++ on sept, 2004 and on neo adjuvant chemo with AC + Taxol since then.

Thanks

[JKrak1975]

Julie..I had surgery about 4 weeks after finishing my last dose of Adriamycin/taxotere (dose dense). Two weeks after surgery, I started taxotere again. The feeling was that I needed to let the body and the blood counts heal a little before the surgery could be done as it would help healing. I had a good response to the chemo and the tumor has shrunk by 1/2 from where we started (at 3 cm.) I wish you well!!! Judy

[al from canada]

Hi Julie,
My wife Linda had surgery after chemo, the interval was approx. 3 weeks. The reason for chemo first was to down-size the tumor (she was 3a BC). Linda had the same chemo regime as yourself and I recall the main reason for waiting is so your blood counts will stabilize to ensure no post-operative infections.
Just a side-bar: Linda was scheduled to have a masectomy but after pushing the surgeon to review the recent literature, we found that there has been no survival advantage to masectomy vs lumpectomy in the down-sizing scenario. As a result, she had a lumpectomy, (with clear margins). Unfortunately, Linda was wrongly diagosed as stage 3a when she was already stage 4. For her, the lumpectomy has turned into a psychological advantage in dealing ith stage 4 as a masectomy would have been just another blunder to deal with.
All the best,
Al

[JoJo]

I was neoadjuvant as well, and I had to wait about 3 weeks for surgery after last chemo infusion.