Is there benefit in surgery for stage iv's

[laureen]

I was not stage 4, but I did have chemo before surgery to shrink the tumor I was off chemo for almost a month before surgery and my tumor had already grown back to50 percent of its original size. Makes sense to me for surgery. I had lumpectomy with complete axillary node dissection. I did get lymphedema, so no massages soon after surgery, I think that's how I got mine. Keep us up to date, prayers your way.

[cheery]

I'm Stage IV with liver met since 2008 and have had bilateral mastectomy while having chemotherapy and Herceptin. It was a huge psychological benefit for me to remove the breasts, especially given the possibility of removing the breast cancer stem cells (some, if not all) from my body.

There has been a shift towards surgery for Stage IV in recent years to reduce the tumour load to improve long term survival, particularly for oligometastatic breast cancer.

Given your daughter's limited disease, she may likely fall into this oligomets group where the doctors treat the disease aggressively for curative purposes. This would include surgery to remove any tumours, in addition to chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

The link below is an online article on oligomestatic breast cancer treatment options to improve long term survival and quality of life.

http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/102/7/456.full

Hope this helps.

Regards

Cat