Reply to Cancer Support Thread

Forum Index » Health and Medicine

Reply to "Cancer Support Thread"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You can call me Beth. Like you, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my 40's (43). I was diagnosed with what's called an "occult primary" breast cancer - basically no tumor was ever found in the breast, but I did have 2 positive lymph nodes.  Like you, I'm also triple positive. I tested negative for BRCA1/2, but did test positive for a gene "variant of unknown significance". I do have some breast cancer on one side of my family (aunt and cousin).

I had neo-adjuvant TCHP chemotherapy, then due to my family history, I chose to have bilateral mastectomy (they did the reconstruction with implants at the same time) with axillary dissection (21 nodes removed - 2 found to still have some cancer cells upon pathology review of the tissue post surgery - no cancer cells found in my breasts at all). I am completing my year of Herceptin - will finish in October. And, I am having radiation of the axilla and breast on the effected side. I'll be starting Tamoxifen soon.

The most difficult/upsetting thing for me is how little the doctors can or will tell you about your risk of recurrence - especially for me I suppose - diagnosed young, triple positive and with an occult breast cancer. There's not much out there on that combination. So it's really, really scary for me. I tried to talk with my oncologist about it and was told that I should just go home, forget about it and live my life. I was told, "you're in remission, ok?" in a very harsh way. Alrighty then....

Anyway - I'm a mom, a wife and I work full time...so juggling life and this cancer merry-go-round has been very challenging. I'm looking forward to getting to mid-October. At that point I'll be done with all the major treatments and will be in follow-up mode + tamoxifen.

[/quote]

Hi Beth!  Is there interest in pursuing the gene variant of unknown significance?  I had a similar finding CHEK2 gene), but no further testing was warranted.  Occult cancer is always challenging.  Based on the cancer in your lymph nodes, was the pathological staging able to determine the grade of the cancer?

We're in the same place...I finish my year of Herceptin at the end of September, and I finish radiation on Monday.  I start Femara (hormone therapy) in two weeks.

I'm VERY displeased for your sake re: your oncologist's reaction to your questions.  Have you spoken to another oncologist?  What sort of response is it to go home and live your life?!  That's patronizing and unhelpful.  I know there's no perfect answer ("You have a 21% chance of recurring!"), but there are factors in play that can help determine a rough estimate of what to expect.

Are you in the D.C. area?  I can recommend an excellent oncologist named Dr. Frederick Barr.  I am with Kaiser, so my main oncologist is a Kaiser physician, but I saw Dr. Barr for a consult that I paid out of pocket (very affordable).  Dr. Barr helped save the lives of a few of my family members over the past 25 years and he has the best demeanor:  http://www.chevychasecancercare.com/meet-the-physicians/  He was quite forthcoming about the risk of recurrence for me (high) and yet warm and encouraging at the same time.

How are you finding radiation?  I have mostly dry peeling and a lot of itching, with only one bad spot; overall, I've found it more manageable than I anticipated at the get-go.

~Trudy

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics