Newly diagnosed

My wife just got diagnosed with cancer in late July. We immediately went the mastectomy route thinking that after the operation we would be in the clear. The size of the tumor was thought to be 2 cm. The operation was on July 29th. Tumor was 5.5 cm invasive ductal carcinoma, positive in two nodes out of twelve, ER and PR positive and Her2 positive +3. Tumor grade was 3 and the nottingham score was 8. Due to a mixup at the hospital we haven't had any of the tests to see if it has spread to other organs. We are getting them next week. Since the operation I have been spending a lot of time trying to get up to speed on the treatments.

We visited the oncologist this week and she recommended two potential options provided it hasn't already spread.

Option 1 - ACT - Adriamycin, Cytoxan, and Taxotere in 8 3 week cycles

Option 2 - ACT - Adriamycin, Cytoxan, Taxotere PLUS Xeloda in 8 3 week cycles

Option 2 would be part of a clinical trail.

Both treatments would include Herceptin at the end (or near the end of the treatment)

Researching it appears the Xeloda changes into 5-fluorouracil inside the body. It appears the MD Anderson cancer center uses 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin, cytoxan and taxol - very similar to taxotere.

My questions are:

1. Anyone have any experience with either treatment option listed above.

2. Has anyone been through the 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin, cytoxan and taxol treatment.

3. Does anyone know about the drug Ellence (epirubicin HCI) which appears to be the only chemo agent approved by the FDA for early stage node positive cancers.

4. Since all of the tumors (one primary and one in a node) were removed, how will we know if the treatment is working?

I will be asking the doctors these questions but it would be helpful to know everyones experiences in these areas.

Thank you and good luck to all.