Anyone had chemo to shrink breast lump...and did it work??

Too big for a mastectomy as it is?  Or jsut that they like to get clear margins so want to try and secure those? 

I think they also use radiotherapy to shrink lumps pre op sometimes too. I don´t think you would notice a difference until end of week two this time and even that might be too early, it may well be after cycle 3 you really start to notice......do you know what kind of cancer it is yet?

Lots of love back to our little worry warrior...xxxxx

Hi Annie

I am just having a feel up here haha....I said this to DH a few times. I may be imagining things but mine def feels different. It was golf ball size before and now it just doesn't feel as round. If I push a bit on top it feels almost like it's moved and it's def more sore than it was. Can only hope the chemo is changing it for the better.

My Onc said shrinkage is normal in 80% of women and 19% It shrinks to nothing hence the marker coil they put in. and 1% it doesn't respond. Sorry I don't like too many statistics as people start panicking at the not so good results but those are very good response percentages. It's also good that you#'ve been offered scan half way through. She said I wouldn't get an MRI till round 5.

P.S spoke to my friend earlier whose sis had BC 6 yrs ago and she used cold cap and still had her hair at end of chemo. She is 6 yrs in remission now. Oh and she was Grade 4 with not v good prognosis. So amazing what these drugs can do.

Love C x

YES, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes it did work!!!!

I had a 7 to 8cm tumour in my left breast and it felt really hard to touch, my chemo was AC, I only had three, was meant to have six but my white blood cells were not coping very well with it and my surgeon thought the chemo had done a good enough job of shrinking the tumour for surgery.

It's strange but I could almost feel it eating away at the tumour and I know it's easy for me to say but try and take your worry head off and put your strong head back on worzel !!!!

Your in good hands at the hospital, they really know their stuff.

Big hugs 

Ruby xxx

Lovin your post Ruby gives us all hope! x

Hi, yes I did and yes it did shrink the lump.

I started out with a 2.8cm tumour and after the 1^st chemo it was 2cm, then the 2^nd it was 1.5cm and then just over 1cm.

As they had put a metal marker in the tumour in case the chemo shrunk it to nothing (and then the surgeon wouldn’t be able to locate it), after 3 sessions they said they didn’t care whether it shrunk anymore as they had to remove the marker anyway during surgery. But they were happy that the tumour showed up grainy on the MRI scan showing the density of the cancer in the tumour was also reducing.

I had 6 sessions of chemo and just had surgery last Tuesday. They don't know now whether radiotherapy is needed, I hope to find out next week.

Hey Kathryn,

Was that followed up with a mascetomy after or lumpdectomy ?

Does anyone know why in some cases chemo is before surgery or surgery is first ? Chicken and egg scenerio.

I'm figuring as i have multiple lumps (2 in breast and largest in lymph) , so greedy, that's why mascetomy is a definite - i asked whether chemo would be first and my consultant felt this option was better.....any thoughts ?? Let's play doctors ;-p

hello ladies, had my coil fitted today, bit nervous but again nothing to worry about, didnt hurt a bit.  My tumour was 3cm and ive had my first chemo, went to my consultant a week later and yay, she said its already began to shrink.  When i had my ultrascan today to fit the coil they showed me how my cancer first looked and how it looks now.  The chemo is working very well. It measures about 2.5cm now.  Got my second chemo this monday coming.  Am feeling quite well but i must admit im not looking forward to it as the first doxetexal left me in such pain.  No feeling sick but pains all over my body, has anyone suffered syptoms like that?  Consultant said she will give me painkillers this time so im hoping they will help. 

sending big hugs to all of you xx

I dont know when you had your biopsy, but before i had mine my lump didnt feel that big or hard and afterwards i went into a right spin as my breast grew at least one size and felt hard to touch.  It was like that for at least 3 weeks and has only just got back to normal.  when i went in to have the marker put in I told the dr i was worried and he showed me on the ultrasound all the bruising and bleeding that the biopsy had caused and said it was very normal to have excess swelling for some time after the biopsy.  my lump is 5.9cm and my oncologist was very confident that the fec would shrink it, although they will give me a mastectomy anyway as it is in the lymph so makes no difference!  My onc said that they will use the lump as a guide to know if the chemo is working - if it doesnt shrink after a few goes they will change the mix of chemo.  That's the benefit of having chemo first....if they did the mastectomy first it would be a matter of fingers crossed that the chemo is working!

i was pleased when i realised that the cancer is actually going to help them to make me better - ha ha to you cancer!

xxxxxxx

Hi I had a lumpectomy.  

The surgeon said there's a couple of reasons, one is they know the chemo is working then as they have something literally to measure it by. 1 in 10 people the chemo doesn't work so if that had been me they would have stopped chemo halfway through and decided on whether mastectomy or not as my tumour was fast growing.

The other reason was the surgeon said doing it this way round on a 36 year old (at diagnosis I'm 37 now) they could potentially remove only a small lump therefore I would not need reconstruction and I could be happy with my appearance.  The surgeon said his first priority is my survival and his second is my happiness at myself in the mirror. 

I know someone who has had surgery first (same surgeon and oncologist) but they needed a mastectomy as again multiple lumps and all lymph nodes removed, so it wasn't about trying to conserve as much of the original breast tissue as possible with them.