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Should my mum have chemo or not?

carlochelsea
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Hi,

My mum was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, 15mm IDC (25mm in total including DCIS), her sentinel lymph node biopsy was unexpectedly positive. We declined the POSNOC trial and decided to have axillary clearance but level 1 and 2 only. Thankfully, all the rest of the nodes were negative. Her tumour was er+, pr+ her2-, grade 1/2. With predict, the benefit of chemo was between 1% (if grade 1) to 3% (if grade 2) so the oncologist didn't recommend chemotherapy but has given us the option if we want it. Should we go ahead with radiotherapy and follow the doctors advice or should we do chemotherapy. My mum is 49 and otherwise fit and healthy. Thank you very much in advance, I really appreciate any advice/help/or similar experiences. Thank you.

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    You need to take the advice of your oncologist as he knows far more than any of us.  The percentage rate seems very low for chemotherapy and it can be quite debilitating for those having it and can cause long term issues, my husband has had both and the radiotherapy caused less problems.  But and its a big But, we're not medically trained so advice is difficult as everyone is an individual.  As I said at the beginning your team of doctors knows best.  Good luck,  Carol 

  • Offline in reply to Dor06

    Thank you so much for your reply. We've decided to pay for the PROSIGNA test which will hopefully help us (and the oncologist) make a more informed decision. Such a shame it isn't available on the NHS as I'm sure it would help a lot of people! 
     

    Thank you for your reply once again!

  • Offline in reply to carlochelsea

    Can u ask if you went ahead with test and what were its results i am a similar situtation to your mum but i was offered chemo as one of my treatment options and im unsure of which way to go i was hoping for this test but apparently the only way of getting it is if i enter the Optima study even then i dont get to know the result and depending what random select group im in depends on treatment.

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    Hi,

    I was diagnosed  with IDC ER positive, grade 2, age 45. They found met cells in my sentinel node. I was offered an Oncotype Dx test to see if I required chemo. My score was low so I didn't require chemo. Currently in the middle of 19 radiotherapy sessions. Has your mum been offered an Oncotype DX test?

  • Offline in reply to Glasgowgal

    My mum wasn't offered the Oncotype DX test, we were offered the OPTIMA trial. However, we decided to pay privately for the PROSIGNA test and the score came back low. Using NHS predict and the score from PROSINGA we opted against chemotherapy (as advised by our oncologist). We weren't offered the Oncotype DX test, I would assume because your mets in the sentinal were isolated cancer cells (ITC's) whereas as my mum had a 7.5mm met in her sentinal node. She has her last week of radiotherapy on Monday. 

     

    Hope this helps. 

  • Offline in reply to Jojo31

    Hi,

     

    My mum didn't want to go for the trial as there was no way of knowing if you had the PROSIGNA test or not. Going with the trial also increased the chances of needing unnecessary chemotherapy. We decided to pay for the test privately (approx £1400). The score came back low. Using this score and the results from NHS predict, we opted against chemo (as recommended by our oncologist both before we paid for the test, and after the test came back which confirmed his decision). 

     

    Hope this helps.

     

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