[Lien]

Hi WTY,

I was 44 at diagnosis and did Zoladex to shut down my ovaries + Arimidex (similar to Femara). When I quit hormonal therapy, my periods gradually came back when I was 50. I've had no recurrences. I never received Herceptin, as that was not done at the time in the Netherlands, where I live.

So if I had a choice, I'd try the hormonal approach first. It can be very effective. I know women who have survived on that for a long time. One of them had mets to the liver. She must be 14 or 15 years out from diagnosis by now. Ofcourse there is no guarantee that it will work for you. The only advantage you have, is that the nodule is still there, and you can monitor effectiveness of therapy by the response you can see. If the tumor is removed, it's not possible to see whether it works or not. Also, if you tend to get many side effects from chemo, you might have less problems with Hormonals. Ofcourse there are no guarantees, and you may need additional Herceptin. But this approach would a. give you the option to still have children one day, b. let you find out whether therapy has an effect or not and c. would probably give you the best Quality of life.

You can always decide to have tumor and/or ovaries removed later, if things don't work out the way you hoped. But if you start with that, you may never know that a "milder" treatment would have been ok too. You could start with just hormonals and add Herceptin to see how that works.

Just my 2 cents. I may be totally wrong here, but my way of thinking makes sense to me. It may even make sense to you. Who knows? ;-)

Hang in there!

Hugs

Jacqueline