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Focus of any treatment for bc
Snufi,
I do not think it is humane to claim or assume that your individual pain with therapy is not so bad that you can't handle further treatment. Medical providers can and should offer assistance in dealing with it and you may have to make sure you have gotten every bit of help they can give you for that, but if that help is not adequate for you in your opinion then we are here to help you regardless.
What is important at this point is not to lose sight of the major objectives for treatment. The lack of adequate investigation so far in behalf of early stage bc patients for their use of non-chemo regimens is frustrating and confusing, but there are still goals that you should keep in mind.
Hopefully, the one goal everyone would probably agree that you need to pursue no matter what treatment you decide upon is that if you are not fully menopausal you need to work toward becoming so. I know it isn't "fair" to have to give up some of the joys of being young, but achieving full menopause and maintaining it appears to be key in avoiding recurrence.
If you want trastuzumab without chemo, you would have to be willing to continue pursue it until you find an onc willing to help you out. Oncs ARE prescribing it for some elderly patients without chemo, as well as for some patients whose other health conditions limit them from receiving chemo with it. Perhaps the thread recently posted about more leeway for off-label use of drugs might help, but no matter who pays for it, it IS a very expensive drug.
Regardless, please consider the importance of doing all that you can to become menopausal and staying that way.
AlaskaAngel
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