Did you have surgery w/o doing chemo?

[Vickilapp]

Hi Donna,
Thanks for the warning re. taxotere. I'm sorry that you had to find out the hard way about this side effect. Good advice about being your own best advocate.

I'm living in the unknown, gathering data to decide whether to do chemo or not, along with surgery.

I'm trying to make decisions from a calm, informed place, rather than a fearful, urgent mentality.

I'd like to hear to people who haven't done chemo with surgery, if anyone can tell me their experience.

Thanks!

[Lani]

If you don't do the therapy before the surgery you will lose the opportunity to find out if the treatment is effective (by seeing the tumor shrink) and be left to wait and wait to see if you break a bone, get short of breath or get liver involvement because that treatment was not effective, by which time changing to another more effective therapy may be too late to do much but gain you some months. Treatments are most effective when given when there is not a lot of bulk of disease and before the cancer has spread widely to other organs. It might be helpful find out if your bone marrow is clear, but this is usually only possible in Germany or with some clinical trials like I-Spy.

In addition her2+ tumors are usually quite angiogenic and there is at least a theoretical argument to do a smaller than a lesser surgery to minimize chances of spread/recurrence.

I am not advising you go one way or the other, just to get as many options as you need and read as much as you can to help decide between the options with your eyes wide open

Best of luck with your decision

Lani

[Vickilapp]

Thanks, Lani, for sharing your understanding and knowledge about her2+ cancer. I understand about the value of the neo adjuvant treatment in shrinking the tumor so you know the treatment is effective.

What you're saying about angiogenisis is interesting. I wonder if there are holistic ways to deal with the angiogenisis to prevent growth.

I'm considering mastectomy without any chemo before or after. Or if chemo is not going to compromise my long term health, then do that and save the breast with just a lumpectomy and then do radiation.

I've got a pet scan tomorrow, and will be doing a biopsy soon.

Vicki