Tumour attached to muscle

Mine was on my chest wall and I had EC-T to shrink it first. They couldn't say whether it was attached, but there was 'no clear plane' between the tumour and my muscle so they didn't want to operate as wouldn't be confident of clear margins. I was obviously very worried about muscle invasion of the cancer cells, but I had none.

It shrunk a bit with EC but really shrank with docetaxel. It went from about 40mm to 15mm in total.

When they operated, they shaved a bit of muscle away too. I got clear margins first time (delighted!)

I notice a bit of pain at times with the muscle, but the whole breast is still a bit sore at times, 5 months on, as is normal. I have no loss of movement with the shaved muscle and I am really active. My shoulder is still a bit stiff and not back to full mobility, but again I think this is very normal at this stage. I still do my arm exercises though down to once a day. It takes time for the nerves to grow back.

Thanks Beatthebreast this has been really helpful. This is the same as my treatment plan, I start docetaxel on Monday. Did you have radiotherapy after surgery too? X

Yes, I had radiotherapy after surgery - surgery and rads easy after chemo!