Surgery and the size of the tumour after chemo

Hi

Warm welcome to the club no one wants to join

Must have come as a bit of a shock after expecting to have just the shrunken tumour removed ? but they have to remove all of it plus a small clear margin of cancer free tissue as they cannot guarantee the chemo wiped out every single tumour cell. The risk of leaving just a few in may have meant needing a mastectomy in a couple of years :-/

Being triple negative you would have been given the chemo anyway either before of after surgery (nearly all TN ladies are) also radiotherapy as there are no follow up treatments for triple neg like some of the other breast cancer types.

There are quite a few TN ladies here who will probably reply back.

Are all your chemo sessions EC or EC and T ? as there is a very active monthly breast cancer chemo chat - Look out for Novembers starting tomorrow.

Take care, G n' J

I had triple negative cancer. I had my surgery first because the mammogram had found three small tumours close together and at that time it was thought it would be stage 1 and only require radiotherapy.  However the tumour analysis after the lumpectomy showed triple negative and stage 2. As a result, as Dreamthief says , I was advised to have the chemo as well as the radiotherapy despite the fact I had clear nodes. 

I am about to have my fourth year mammogram and at my last check in July all was still clear.

Hope all goes well for you Guernseycow.

Love Karen

 Hi Guernseycow

I was diagnosed in  July 2019   with a 7mm  cancerous lump,   which turned out to be TNBC  Stage 1, grade 3. At the diagnosis  I was told surgery, radiation  then ongoing hormone treatment.  I  was also lymph node clear    

I was told that the tumor would be removed  along with healthy surrounding tissue  to ensure a  clear margin between cancerous and non cancerous tissue.  I  had  lumpectomy  2 weeks later,  it had grown to 11mm.  

My tumor type was not known till after the surgery,  so yes I was shocked when  I was told  I still needed chemo  cos  it was TNeg .

My be ask  your oncologist to explain again your lab report and tumor for size of the tumor,   maybe why they are trying to reduce it first.

 I asked for additional appointments to answer my growing concerns  and explanations of the different treatment plans and I got  it , after some attempts to fob me off " oh The clinic is busy  you might only get 10 mins",  I insisted and i git a full a good hour ).  

Knowledge is power, power helps us to have some control.

Thank you all so much for your replies, it’s so reassuring to know what treatment other people have had. 
I was really annoyed that my oncologist hadn’t fully explained the need for the chemo, he said it was to reduce the size of the tumour so the surgery was less invasive. This was at the start of chemo in August so that’s what I thought the point of the chemo was. So it was a shock to find out that the chemo doesn’t actually make a difference at all - and tbh I don’t mind how much of the breast they remove as long as they get the cancerous cells. 

The original size of the tumour was just over 2cm but fast growing (68%). It’s now down to 1.3cm after 4 chemo sessions, which is great news. But I found this out from meeting the counsellor at the Breast Clinic, not from my oncologist. 

I feel much more reassured now after hearing from you all, but I will be having a serious conversation with my oncologist when I next see him. 

thank you again everyone, you’re awesome. 
xx

Hi, I have recently finished chemo and still to have surgery. It is also my understanding that the chemo is to shrink the tumour and therefore lessen the extent of the surgery...indeed when I signed my chemo consent form the oncologist had written in the 'reasons for chemo' part 'to improve cosmesis'.

At my halfway chemo scan...after 3 FEC...2 sonographers couldn't find my 22mm tumour and it was recorded as 'nil to measure'.

I have another scan and mammogram on Monday and see my surgeon on Tuesday.