Good response to treatment no mastectomy

[Benk]

Just wondering if anybody has any advice or the same experience , my wife has her2 positive which has metastasis she has had great response to her treatments with the recent scans showing no "sign" of cancer in the Breast
now , So the oncologist is saying that a mastectomy is not on the cards at this point as it would reduce the immune system suggesting they would watch it and deal with it should it become an issue further down the track.
Has anybody had this experience ?
Once again thanks

[Mtngrl]

Dear Benk,

So glad your wife is responding well to treatment!

I have never had breast surgery. My original breast tumor still lights up on scans most of the time. Your doctor's advice is "mainstream," though some take a different view.

Last I checked, there was no controlled, prospective study that showed definitively that removal of the original tumor in someone who's metastatic at diagnosis improves overall survival. There have been retrospective studies that try to answer that question, but there are too many confounding factors to get a good answer. For example, it's quite likely that people will only be offered surgery if their overall health (besides the cancer) is good and if they seem likely to live long enough for it to be worth it.

General anesthesia suppresses the immune system. Recovering from major surgery takes time, energy, and healing resources. There are risks from surgery, including hospital-acquired infections. I don't know where you are, but in the US it's a major threat. The breast is not a vital organ, so cancer in the breast does not kill. No one really knows for sure how metastasis works. It seems to me, especially with HER-2+ breast cancer, the cells that break free and go take up residence in bones or distant organs do that early on in the cancer's development. Maybe the original tumor is still sending out patrols that establish beachheads elsewhere. But, on the other hand, there's a theory that the original tumor actually suppresses proliferation of metastases. Often when it's removed the metastases get bigger and stronger.

If the cancer in the breast appears to be gone, then that's wonderful news.

[Benk]

Hi mtngrl
Thanks for that info once again you have been a great help to me ,that now makes sense you have filled in the blanks that the oncologist didn't elaborate on.
We are in Australia but it seems the base treatment is the same around the world.
Thanks for your well wishes I hope you are doing well.