Topic: What Chemo for ILC

I had AC dose dense x 6.  That was in late 2005.  I think doctors are reconsidering the Adriamycin as you know.  It sure worked for me, but I didn't have a pCR.  I had my chemo before the surgery so I would know if it worked.

Just finished 4/4 treatments of TC, today!  I'm being treated at the Mayo Clinic. TC, followed by Arimidex is the plan. Because I had two tumors in one breast, I was advised a lumpectomy was not a good option. I chose to have a bilateral mastectomy, which turned out to be the best choice, as they found two more small tumors in the same breast, and markers in the other breast.  I feel very fortunate, as I had very minimal SE from TC (just a funky mouth for a few days). Radiation was not recommended, nor dismissed. It was suggested I meet with the radiologist for a consultation, but after reading about it, I decided to pass. I had expanders put in at time of surgery, and have had no problems so far.
I hope your treatment continues to go well.

TAC 3/23 - 7/6/06

I was also stage IIb with one positive node and did dose dense AC X 4 followed by Taxol X 4 that was from Nov 05 to Mar 06.  I then removed my ovaries and am on Femara.  So far so good.

I was given 4 rounds of A/C and 4 rounds of Taxol in 2000 for my stage 2 IDC, not knowing at the time that I also had a ILC in the other breast. When my stage 3 ILC was finally detected 5 years later in 2005, my onc opted to give me 6 rounds of Taxotere and also put me on oral Xeloda. I started taking Aromasin during rads and have been on it for 2.5 years now. Will be 3 years NED next month.

You never should have started chemo.  More harm than good.  Radiation , surgery and AI(aromatase inibitor).  Read Cristifanilli's papers from MD Andersen.

 I am doing 4 tx of AC. It is a personal decision btw you and your onc. There are many new studies out and hopefully your onc is up-to-date. y onc referred to a confrence she went to and it talked abt the increase of ILC AFTER 5 years- that it expotentiates (sp?) If chemo helps me, great! I don't want to say 'what if...?'

D

I did the TC combo, because I was afraid of the heart side effect. I had surgery last month and they discovered the ILC was small tumors spread over a 5cm area rather than the 1.7cm the MRI showed. So to be agressive we are going to do 4 rounds of Adriamycin now before radiation. IT seems my ILC could have been a bit resistant to the TC. I don't want to have any regrets for not trying everything. We did a treadmill stress test to see if my heart was healthy to start and will monitor it between each dose.

Taxotere + Cytoxin is claimed (now) to be effective for either node negative or node positive, and to lead to longer disease free suvival than the AC combo, which works well for HER2+, but not as well (usually) for HER2-. But these are just generalizations.  If TC didn't work for Jobu, A might.  Lobular is odd in any case in that it seems to be more resistant to chemo than ductal, so whatever works for you, works for you. I'd be very interested in the results of her decision and hope she'll let us know.