After treatment

[Gittelarter]

Good morning all.

Went for my lymph node result yesterday and had good news at last ☺️ Only one out of 9 contained cancer. I was even told that I might not need chemo after all which has confused me as I was told before the op that I would definitely need chemo? Has anyone been in that situation and if so what was the after treatment?

Much love Gitte xxxxxx

[Jennymary]

Hi, pleased you've had some good news, my cancer journey was sept 2013 - march 2014, i had lumpectomies which removed all the cancer from my body, and i was going to have chemo and radio to protect my body from it coming back, more precautionary than anything, arriving for my first oncology appt, when i was called in the oncologist explained that they were (at the time) running a trial as a lot of people were having chemo when they didn't need it, he drew it out for me like a family tree, and i had a one in three chance of not having chemo, I signed up, for me it worked, no chemo, 3 weeks radio, still on tamoxifen until i have another check up next year, I've had clear mammograms in 2014/15/16, hope this helps xxx

[Debster2016 in reply to Jennymary]

Hey Jenny that sounds like a good - for want of a better word!- outcome to me, well done you. Keep well and thank you for all your supportive posts on here xx

[Debster2016]

Hi Gitte oh that is brilliant news! I am so pleased for you. And see how the goal posts move again when new information comes to light?

I wasn't in that position so I am sorry I can't comment as I was a good candidate for chemo. But I understand that in borderline cases other measures are used to decide on the treatment plan. Perhaps a question for you to ask your specialist / oncologist would be: "if 6 of my lymph nodes were +ve what would be the treatment plan?" to give you something to compare to?

I would also suggest ringing macMillan as their clinical nurses can also give you information that should help. They said to me in one phone call that I may actually get offered the choice of chemo or no chemo, depending on number of +ve nodes.

Hope this helps a bit Gitte and wishing you well going forward. Keep us posted!

Best Deb 🌹😘

[Lou_Lou_1962]

I had intensive radiotherapy rather than chemotherapy and it seems to have worked (after the lymph node removal). Not nearly so invasive but tiring all the same. Not back at full time work yet and it's been over a year. Everyone reacts differently. I truly wish you well. X

[Debs1962]

That's sounds good for you if you don't have to have chemo, in my hospital they did chemo if any nodes were affected as they don't do the test that gives you a score, can't remember the name of it but basically it scores your cancer type and if it is low then risk of recurrence is low so chemo isn't of much benefit weighing it up with the side effects of chemo etc

It seems most hospitals and surgeons have a slightly different system, but of course no two cancers are exactly the same for every person is different.

[Jennymary in reply to Debs1962]

Hi Debs, i had all lymph nodes removed from right arm as 3 tested positive for cancerous, so surgeon just took them all away, the test is Oncotype, and when i was on my journey I was part of the trial to prove it works, and mine came back with a low score, so despite lymph nodes involvement my medical team with completely satisfied that my surgery had removed all cancer which is why i was a suitable candidate for the trial