Hiya,

I'm sorry to read that the chemo has not shrunk the tumour.

I am in a similar position with my mum (I actually came on here to put a post on about it and saw this one).

My mum is currently going through chemo for Triple Negative. Her tumour was 5cm with 2 positive lymph nodes under arm.

Midway through chemo, a scan showed that the tumour has decreased in size, but by only 5mm. As the tumour was quite large to begin with, we were hoping for much more!

We were very disappointed as we also heard that triple negative responds well to chemo. 

My mums original chemo regime has continued, as even though only shrinkage by a few mm, they say it is working and have not changed anything.

I'm not sure what happens if different drugs need to be used, but looking at it in a positive way, at least now you know what doesn't work, and hopefully will have much better success with what it is changed to. Also, it has not grown, which is also a positive.

As someone told me though, scans can be misleading and you don't know what is going on inside that tumour.

The proof of the pudding is in the pathology report after surgery :) 

I hope that is of some help x

Hey there I'm triple too tchp neoadjuvent didn't work well  but triple can be like that but don't be scared there are very effective treatments post surgery there's radio and herceptin plus an an aromatase r tamoxifen. Im48 and am on the herceptin plus lethrezole radio soon but once looking to use kadcyla .it's not uncommon for neoadjuvent to not get a CPR but don't panic I've heard great success stories however it's a long road and it's ok to get fed up I could throttle some people so chin up take it stage by stage and take care we know how you feel ...I still wake up and go huuh seriously me with cancer ...it's good to talk

Hi Clare

I am half way through chemo, just finished 3 rounds of EC and been for an ultrasound this morning and looks like my tumour has only shrunk by 2mm - it was 2.6cm to begin with.

I have to wait to see my oncologist tomorrow but now I'm scared - like u I was trying to be positive but this has really worried me.

I wondered how ur getting on now - a year later?

Thanks

Mel

Hi Mel, 

Sorry to hear you are going through the same. 

To make the long story short: they kept me on my planned treatment, so after EC I moved to Taxol + trastuzumab. After 2 sessions of Trastu we saw some changes (-0.5cm).and that was it.

Fast forward: did surgery (confirmed partial response), radiotherapy and now into immunotherapy (kadycla). Original plan was to have 14 sessions of trastuzumab (injection) anyway, only difference is that now I am connected to the dripping again (for 30 mins only and no side effects, no more meds at home, though I have to say I was really lucky and the process wasn't horrible - but still, taxol is way easier-) 

What can I say, the thing with chemo and radio is that unless you have the tumor to compare, we have no idea if it is working or not. Dr. Is not worried at all and I'm counting that the nodes were clean.

They have always said main treatment was surgery, so hang in there. Maybe trastuzumab  works for you, there are tons of factors to take into account and we are all different. At least we have a second option, had we done surgery before, we wouldn't be able to make decisions. Information is power.

Let us know how it goes. 

Hi I am triple positive, had surgery first, lymph nodes clear. Can I ask how your treatment is going please  best wishes xx