Benefits of Chemotherapy

I had an almost 5cm tumour removed at the end of September and they removed my sentinel lymph nodes which were confirmed clear,- which is great. However my oncologist still recommended Chemo to basically mop up anything that might be circulating as the tumour was big and had grown since they first looked at it (even tho my nodes were clear). I could have had Chemo before the surgery to shrink the tumour but I decided I just wanted it gone and went for a mastectomy first. Part of me does wonder if the Chemo is worth it - I'm feeling great and I'm about to go through a quite aggressive protocol but I have to trust my oncologist and the professionals that have recommended it.  Glad the Picc line placement went well for you that you mentioned in your other post. Good luck for tomorrow - I'm weirdly just quite keen to get going with mine tomorrow, then it will be one ticked off! 

Hi

The nurse had said if they had known about the 5 lymph nodes before hand, they would have done chemo first - but I thought that was mainly to shrink the tumour.   I don't understand how they can see no benefits before, but ok to have it after.  I'm an overthinker though.

I know what you mean about getting the chemo started, it's been a long haul up to now.

Hope yours goes smoothly  x

Hi LOR22 

It sounds like before surgery, they had no knowledge the cancer had reached your lymph nodes, so they didn’t factor that into the decision about whether to give you chemo before surgery. Now they know that, the consideration changes. Chemo before surgery and chemo after surgery work in exactly the same way on any cancer they find anywhere in the body. It’s always your choice whether to have chemo or not, but I would think they will be quite strongly recommending it if it was in 5 lymph nodes.