Has anyone just taken letrozole and bone therapy only?

Hi, I had chemo, so not really answering your question, but my understanding is that letrozole aims to block the estrogen to try to prevent ER+ cancer returning whereas chemo aims to kill any cancer cells that are still lurking, so the two treatments do different things.  Best of luck with your decision 

Irishgirl16  Thankyou for replying. It's very difficult as health wise I'm high risk. Appreciate hearing others experience. All the best. 

Lots of women don't have chemo.  If you only had one node removed was it clear? Was your tumour grade 3 and/or large? Are you ER+ with a high oncotype score? Why did they want you to have chemo?

@londonmumof2 thanks for replying. The lymph node I had removed had cells that were grade 1 from the ductal cancer, it was the only hot node. I also had grade to lobular which was a sizeable tumour 12cm, but it was not in the node. I have a kidney transplant and due to my immunosuppression it's caused coronary artery disease. The oncologist made it clear at initial visit that he would not be keen to recommend me for chemo as I was really high risk. However, in decision visit he initially told me he spoke to 5 of his colleagues, 3 not keen on chemo at all and 2 could have their arm twisted. I had already made my mind up based on what he said to take the letrozole and then he threw a curve ball and said he could probably get me through chemo but I still risked all these terrible outcomes. I stuck with my original plan and it was later at home I started to dwell on the he could probably get me through comment. Been driving myself crazy. That is why I sought out experience of others who maybe didn't take the chemo to see if how they felt about it. It's complicated, but then that's me all over! 

Hi, this is tricky isn’t it. I understand your thoughts on this. I would ask your oncologist about how likely your tumour type would respond to chemotherapy. I had a mixed tumour. Invasive ductal and lobular. There are different subtypes of lobular breast cancer, although I don’t know what mine was. I was told that lobular does not always respond to chemo, but it can have a very good response to hormone therapy. However, I had chemo prior to surgery (I opted for a mastectomy). The pathology report said that I had a complete response. So the lobular bit of my tumour did respond. It is complicated. I would ask a few more questions relating to the pathology report. Xx 

@Cloudier, Thankyou for replying. Yes, definitely tricky, I've been finding it difficult. I was told that chemo would possibly add a further 4% to average 10 year life expectancy. However due to my health issues the risks I would be taking if I chose chemo are massive. I've read a little more and hormone therapy does seem to be a choice for some people with ER tumours, even with some lymph node involvement. So I'm thinking I'm starting to relax into that, I'm certainly less panicked than I was previously. I'm really thankful for other people's experience and views. Wishing you all the best.