TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP
Comments
-
Ok, thanks. I am hoping since my Mom's cancer appears to be found early, that there are no micromets and better yet no lymph node involvement. The tumor was discovered on her yearly mammograms, which she is religious about going to. The pathologist said that what ever happened just started to grow within the year. The HR+ does concern me, but I am hoping that the aggressiveness of this type of cancer has not hit this level.
0 -
laolson the tumor sounds like it could be small. I know I was told 4 years and my total tumor size was 6.5cm (Yikes). HER2+ is aggressive but Herceptin had changed the prognosis dramatically in a positive way.. It's only been standard care for early breast cancer since 2006. There are also other drugs out for HER2+. Note that everyone on this thread is HER2+.Look at Tucker, She's 3.5 years from diagnosis.
BTW I'm agreeing with Beesie. Your stage doesn't change from initial diagnosis but you can get distant mets later on.
0 -
I learn something every day! I have read some gals who say they were stage 1 or 2 and now a 3 or 4 but maybe they are getting the wrong info.
tucker
0 -
Tucker someone might be given an unofficial stage before surgery. My BS pretty much though I'd be a stage IIIA assuming I probably had micromets in the nodes. Others might have been told their tumor was smaller only to find out after surgery the tumor was larger. That's why it might have changed but the official stage is after surgery except for those who did chemo first. They only have a "clinical" staging because they don't really know for sure since chemo and/or herceptin usually shrinks the tumor(s)0
-
Lago, you are so positive! Can you just be on my hip through this whole process, so I don't completely loose it about my Mom?! I actually was good today and went out to the Mall with my daughter for a few hours and felt ok. I just know I will feel better once all the tests are done and the surgery is on. So, was your final diagnosis 5cm after surgery? Did they give you a prognosis of 4yrs to live prior to surgery and treatment or was it something else?
0 -
Why shouldn't I be postive. I'm done with treatment. My hair had grown back (although I wear it short now) and I"m feelilng pretty darn good. Hey I'm healthy. My DH is the one passed out on the couch with the flu.
Before surgery they thought my tumor was 7cm! After surgery the total size was 6.5cm but only 5.5cm was IDC, the other 1.5cm part was DCIS. They based my staging on the invasive part (IDC) only.
No one ever gave me only 4 years too live. I cracked up laughing reading that. There is no crystal ball. No one can say how many years you have left especially with early stage because you may never have distant recurrence. Seems many women don't. Once you have breast cancer it isn't an automatic that this is how you will perish.
My onc gave me statistics that said with my treatment plan there is an 84% chance I will be alive and NED (no evidence of disease) in 10 years. Doesn't mean I only have 10 years, it means that I will still be all clear in 10 years and continue to live.
You mom's onc will probably give her that kind of information once they have the pathology from surgery. If not she should ask.
I never asked what my prognosis was if I didn't do any treatment (including surgery). That wasn't even a consideration for me so I never even asked the question.
0 -
Sorry, your last post said 4 years, so I wasn't sure where that came from.
"laolson the tumor sounds like it could be small. I know I was told 4 years and my total tumor size was 6.5cm (Yikes). HER2+ is aggressive but Herceptin had changed"
Those are amazing statistics! It just goes to show when money is invested, the success rates rise for curing the cancer. I wish they would invest as much money in all of the other cancers combines.
I know my Mom will follow the doctor's orders. She already has. I know she will be a bit nervous about the treatment plan, but from reading many posts and talking to other women who went through it, it doesn't seem horrific. One of my best friend's from college husband is currently going thru chemo treatment for testicular cancer. He is Stage 2 and he has to go for cancer treatments every 3 weeks for a whole week. That is grueling. Supposedly, he will have only a 10% of it coming back, but still that is alot to bare.
0 -
I meant the tumor started to grow 4 years prior to my diagnosis not that I would only have 4 years to live.
Typcially women have their tumors for 10 years before it's found because they are much slower growing and usually not so big but there are some folks here with bigger tumors than mine. HER2+ is super charged growth factor.0 -
Oh, wow! Were you monitored every year with a mammo or did you find it on your own? It is amazing how long the cancer can live in your body without you even knowing
0 -
2006 switched from film to digital mammos. I got a call back and they did an US. Said it was nothing probably due to the new techology. Went to BS and he agreed
2007 Skipped (don't ask)
2008 mammo OK
2009 mammo OK
2010 5 weeks after seeing my gyno (with physical exam) I notice a very small spec of blood in my sports bra that appeared to becoming from my nipple. I had noticed it a few weeks before but I thought it was dirt. When I saw it again, know ing that I had washed my bra and the stain had been removed I figure out it was blood. My mammo was scheduled for the next day so I had my gyno change it to a diagnostic mammo.*since I have dense tissue they always have this note, "The tissue of both breasts is extremely dense, which lowers the sensitivity of mammography"
I felt fantastic. I was in the best shape. Nice abs too. I had no reason to think there was an issue.
0 -
laolson...if it makes you feel better, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer at 85 Because she also had heart problems and was diabetic, she decided not to do a biopsy or anything. She met with an oncologist and takes some kind of chemo pill. I suspect it is tamoxifen, but she says no. At any rate, she just turned 90, and onc says she cant feel it at all.
She is diabetic also...took actos for years and just recently was diagnosed with a bladder tumor. They did surgery, removed the tumor, it was contained and she is doing great. It amazes me that the woman they were afraid to do a biopsy on for breast cancer, has fallen, broke her pelvis, had the bladder cancer thing going on. They gave her some treatment for the bladder cancer that caused her sugars to go crazy and triggered major heart issues, so she had to go to surgery and have a pacemaker put in. Doing fine. I hope I inherit those genes and that stubborness (well, pretty sure I have that)
Lago, we can tentatively plan for Friday. I may come up in the morning, so maybe we can do lunch. St Pats is Saturday, March 17.
By the way, I laughed out loud when you said your New England family always thinks they are right. I am so that way. My kids hate it when I tell them something...they disagree....then find out I am right. About 90% of the time. Drives them insane! Bahahaha....so worth it.0 -
Hey guys, please clarify this for me!
lago I know you and fluffqueen are out havin a great time!!
But when I read what you said about the size of your tumor, and IDC and DCIS I began to wonder about my tumor. It was 2.1 cm and 50% was DCIS and 50% was IDC but the onc said the tumor (like most of them) didn't have an exact cut off point for the DCIS/IDC because tumors aren't a perfect round glob. Mine was kinda long in shape. Still, wouldn't that change my staging and mean my tumor was only around 1 cm IDC?
Anyone have an idea? I had not heard of this before - usually the total size is what is considered. Thanks and have a good weekend!
tucker
0 -
laolson18 I am 68 and my diagnosis sounds much like your mom's. This is the horrible waiting period to get all the tests and decide a treatment plan. Once your Mom has the surgery things will be easier (emotionally). I had a lumpectomy and because one lymph node was positive my surgeon (who calls himself agressive) took out all my lymph nodes. Right now I am in the middle of my third round of AC chemotherapy. It is not easy but do able.
Peggy
0 -
Kitchenella, you are definitely right, the waiting period is horrible. How did your daughter manage from so far away? Luckily, I am only a 3 hr drive away. My Mom's Ki-67 is 84%. Is this test useful? I have heard mixed reports. I am just praying to God that the cancer hasn't spread somewhere distant. I am hoping she has her older age going for her.
0 -
Tucker I don't think it matters in my case if my tumor was 5.5cm or 6.5cm I would still be the same stage but on my path report it states the 5.5cm is "Tumor size on the most representative gross or microscopic measurement OF THE INVASIVE COMPONENT ONLY): 5.5cm"
then later it states the DCIS measurement is less that 25% of the tumor. I believe they go by the "greatest dimension" to stage since that is the only dimension they gave on my path report.. My tumor looked like cauliflower in my MRI.0 -
Good mornung ladies.
Beautiful sunny morning here in the lower Hudson River Valley of NY.....picked up my Emend and whatever that other stuff is for ..if my blood work is okay...my last (no 6) neo adjuvant TCH chemo on Tuesday!
Then on to ...in the evening I'm thinking lumpectomy and rads and in the morning I'm thinking BMX....
Hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life.
Here is a very hopeful article on vaccines for cancer and we HER2 ladies are on the forferont of the quest just in case you all missed it.
Could This Be The End Of Cancer?
Dec 12, 2011 12:00 AM ESTIt's a disease that kills millions a year and a slew of hoped-for miracle treatments have gone nowhere. Now scientists say vaccines could hold the key—not just to a cure but to wiping out cancer forever.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/12/11/could-this-be-the-end-of-cancer.html
0 -
Hi Ashla, I am just curious where you are getting your treatment done? My mother lives in Northern Jersey. Did they decide to give you neo adjuvant therapy first due to the size of the tumor?
0 -
Ashla, I know how you feel. I didn't have a choice of mx or lumpectomy, I had to have mx, but I struggled with bilateral or just uni mastectomy. All the doctors told me do unilateral, there was no evidence of anything wrong in the other breast. They told me the way cancer travels, if I were to recur, it would not happen in the other breast, it would be somewhere else in the body. If I were to get cancer in the other breast, it would be a new occurrence. I ultimately went with their recommendation, but struggled with it. I am at ease with it now.
0 -
ashla - I wrote it down, 2 columns, all the reasons for and against each choice. It helped to see it there on the page.0
-
Laolson,
My children live in Bergen county . She probably has Sloan Kettering as an option. Although a bit far..I could have done that as well. I decided aginst it. I'll send you a pm about my doctors.
The neo adjuvant surgery was to downsize the tumor for better cosmetics mostly. My bs iis an expert at breast and nipple sparing surgery. People ome from al over the world. It's lost on me!0 -
Asla,
I havent read the article yet, but I am tentatively planning on doing a phase 2 vaccine trial in a couple of months. I gave all the info to my onc and have been communicating with them and it appears I qualify. My onc was trained at the nci or whatever it is theybdo all those trials. He knows the doc at the head of the one I am considering and is all excited. For me, it means a lot of travel, so I am just weighing my options. I cant start it until the month after my last herceptin in March, so I have some time to decide.0 -
Tucker, I am not sure on the staging change either. All I know is mine was 1x1.8, multifocal with about half and half idc and lcis tissue.
Ashla, ki-67 is just one piece of the pie in the pathology. It is a test that measures cell proliferation, or how fast it multiplies. On my path it says under 10 is low, 10-20 borderline, and over 20 is high. Mine was 15. but I believe there are a lot of other markers that they consider either as important or more important.0 -
I have two questions. One, my Mom wanted to know if there any vitamins she should stop taking, so she is not feeding the cancer. She is a bit of a vitamin junky. Also, when the biopsy is performed, can the radologist tell if the tumor is close to the chest wall, or is that only determined at the time of surgery? My Mom's tumor is measuring at 1.9cm and she/nor the surgeon can feel it.
0 -
Laolson her doctors will tell her what to take and not to take. I doubt any of her vitamins are feeding her cancer. I know my onc didn't want me to stop or start anything new before chemo so she knew the SE were from chemo and not something else.
There are some vitamins you must stop a week or two before/after surgery for a while because they thin your blood. Her surgeon and/or radiologist should of told her that.
And don't get all paranoid that the tumor is on her chest wall. I freaked out about that too before I got any information. They had an idea mine was in the posterior region from the Mammo/US.
0 -
laolson - I would suggest that she bring a list of her vitamins to her onc. There were things they didn't want me to take during chemo - like CoQ10 but other things were ok. Each doctor has their own ideas about supplements it seems. My tumor was close to the chest wall and during the lumpectomy they had to take out a little bit more tissue to get a wide margin. I was happy about that. Also since it was close, the radiation boosts were a little different to make sure that they got to the tumor bed.0
-
ashla, that article was really fascinating.
fluffqueen, is this the trial you are considering?
0 -
My Mom's is located in the upper quad on her right breast. Thanks once again for calming my nerves.
0 -
Thanks Omaz. My Mom was concerned about the CoQ10. I will mention it to her.
0 -
laolson - that is where mine was too.0
-
couldn't feel mine either as it was near the chest wall. nobody seemed particularly concerned. On vitamins...you will see people are all over the board on it during chemo. Some feel that the antioxidant ones interfere with the chemo, others feel it helps. I took a lot before chemo, didn't take anything during, and then restarted after. figured the 3 months that I went without vitamins couldn't have that big of an impact overall. I have read several books I like that also lay out a vitamin plan. One is Waking the Warrior Goddess. This one is the story of the plastic surgeon who was frustrated wiwth her mom's BC care adn reconstruction. She was instrumental in getting the law in place that required insurance companies to cover reconstruction. She gave up plastic surgery annd now does natural living stuff. Also, Beating Cancer with Nutrition is a big one that everybody reads on this board it seems, by Patrick Quillen.
I read all the info, and then devised my own protocol. I do make sure the vitamins are soy free (many are not due to the capsule stuff) and try to buy them organic and gluten free. Gets expensive!
I amake a juice drink every day, and I have started emptying some of the capsules into the drink so I can quit swallowing so many pills all the time.0
