update

dawn · 07-11-2006, 05:15 AM

I just got the results of my bone scan in. Everything is clear and showing normal. So thats all my tests and scans until my next appointment and Im showing good. What a relief, so far so good. I have an appointment with my 2 onco's in August. But Im a little confused on one topic. Any help or questions you guys can give me will be appreciated. When I was dx, everything was and sounded so much more serious but treatable. I had an appointment with my Rad. Onco and he was so much more upbeat and optomistic because I was er+, Pr+ and Her2nu+. My understanding is that these make my cancer so much more agressive, so why is my specialist so much more optomistic? Is it because there's a treatment there for it? His exact words were " The same cancer WILL NOT come back in that breast!" Did I miss something? or is there something I should have asked? I even ask my husband if Im understanding this the same way he is or am I making things different in my head. He seems to understand it the same way. Apparently my margins were fantastic. But it's still was in 8/18 of my nodes, stage III. So Im not getting it. Why such an optomistic outlook. Im told the specialist is the best and he doesn't believe in sugar coating anything. Im the type of person that needs information, good or bad, then I can deal with whats coming. Anyway, I need some imput, or some help with any questions I should ask in my appointment in 3 weeks. Im not trying to look at the pessimistic side, but I dont want to get all excited then have a big let down in 3 weeks, or should I just take the good news and run with it until I get something different. Confusing myself I think.

cathy34 · 07-11-2006, 07:20 AM

From what you wrote your cancer seems to be of the aggressive nature but who's to tell. The only thing I would be cautious about is any Dr. telling me that my cancer would never come back. How do they know? They're not all knowing otherwise we'd have a cure! My Dr tells me point blank - right now she can say she'll never cure me. She'll treat me and hopefully we can get a coctail that will shrink the lung nodles to the point where they are smaller or even to the point that we can no longer even see them on scans but she said she'll never tell me its gone for good because she just never knows. One little microscopic cancer cell is all it takes to break free and travel in the blood stream to start things going. Don't get me wrong and I'm not trying to rain on your parade but I think you should be extremely pleased with the scan results that you just got and take one day at a time. Don't look to the future - just take each day for what its worth -- a true blessing.

tousled1 · 07-11-2006, 07:25 AM

I happy that all your tests have come back with good results. But please do remember breast cancer is a disease that there is no cure for. My oncologist has never said she could cure me. At my appointment last week she said that I will be watched very closely and as soon as a "hot spot" shows on a PET scan she will treat it very agressively. Keep a positive attitude and think happy thoughts.

MJo · 07-11-2006, 10:39 AM

My oncologist has used the "cure" word. He actually said "we have been curing cancer for some years now." He didn't mean Her2 breast cancer. But he has patients who have been seeing him once a year for 14 years for checkups and their cancer hasn't come back. Perhaps he considers them cured. I know of a man who had kidney cancer 25 years ago and it's never come back. He considers himself cured.

In my Wellness Community Support Group, we have mostly breast cancer survivors. The majority of us consider this a chronic disease. I would like to think I'm cured, but I consider myself "vigilant."

Estro+ and Progest pos. is a good think because you can take arimidex or some other estrogen inhibitor every day to help keep the cancer from coming back. Her2 is certainly aggressive, but with Herceptin and Tykerb, we have as good a chance as anyone.

My oncologist described Her2 as "nasty" and "evil." I think that in his 20 years of practice he's had poor outcomes for Her2 Pos. patients. With the effectiveness of Herceptin Tykerb, I think he's relieved and optimiistic for his patients. He likes to see us get better, just like every other doctor.

chrisy · 07-11-2006, 04:35 PM

Dawn, I'm glad you have been receiving such good reports! Good news is always good news. The docs do have a way of confusing us, tho. My interpretation of what you are quoting is that you had GREAT margins, equivalent to they got all the tumor, and with rads and other treatment, the odds will get even better. With this beastie, you just never KNOW for sure - that's why you want to stay vigilant.
Re the "great news" you are ER+PR+HER2+? I interpret that as the cancer has presented a "target-rich environment" - with lots of options for shutting it down. In the past, this was true with ER+ (Tamoxifen and Aromatase inhibitors), and now for HER2 there is Herceptin, Lapatinib coming down the pipeline and other research to target HER2. HER2 does usually mean a more aggressive cancer, which was associated with poor prognosis - I use past tense because those statistics are before Herceptin.
Good luck, and I hope you continue to get good news and do very well as you continue treatment.
Chris

Cathya · 07-11-2006, 05:12 PM

Dawn;

I am so happy for you that your onc is positive and encouraging!!! That means he/she will fight for you and that is exactly what you need...a doctor who values you as a person and who will try anything and everything for your survival. You never really know actually....perhaps you have beaten this disease and it will never return. You really don't know. I had clear margins...one was only 1 mm but clear......negative nodes as well....but they still found a 1 cm tumor in my supraclavicular node....so metatastic bc. The point I am making is that you really never know......so keep up the fight....complete all your treatments.....use herceptin.....keep aggressively following your disease and up to date on potential treatments and continue to develope a good relationship with your onc. You will be fine.

Cathy

judiek · 07-11-2006, 05:23 PM

Dawn,

Great news on the scan...I hope you can get some of your questions answered at you next appt...I pray you'll never have to deal with this disease again

Warmly,

Judiek

dawn · 07-11-2006, 08:20 PM

Thanks everyone, I knew I could count on you guys to make things sound realistic. My Onco is the greatest and very honest and Im sure he's trying to tell me things are looking good right now as opposed to before the test results and pathology report. As for a cure, I think he's trying to tell me that Im very treatable. But of course, my next appointment Im going to ask him to clarify in laymans terms. AS all of us know, we can only hope that we wont have a recurrence and if so thats its treatable. I think I can live with a treatable disease as long as I can watch my kids grow up. Right now, Im not have any side effects from the chemo as such, it just gets a little wearing every couple of weeks seeing doctors, keeping appointments and having treatments. but then again I guess thats something you have to get used to. Thanks for keeping my feet on the ground.
Dawn

Bev · 07-12-2006, 07:59 PM

Hi Dawn,

Check out triple positive on the search bar for more threads. I think it was AlaskaAngel that started an informative one in the past few months. You can also click on her to read her series of posts if the search has too many returns. For the most part the Her2+ seems to be worse than ER/PR+. Good Luck. BB