I'm thinking if after my forthcoming surgery I had the same I would probably elect to have everything possible. That's me. When I had wide margin surgery for a sarcoma I was very upset to discover that that was the only treatment for that kind of cancer, nothing else works. I'm interested to see what others think.
Hello. What a shock you've had. And surgery too. And surgical menopause. It's a lot. I've been there.
I was given the same choice. My staging was a bit off the wall, because although there was no visible sign of spread, and the tumour was a 1A under the microscope, it had just begun to breach the inner lining of the sac, and the ovary with the tumour in it was all stuck to the bowel so I was given an 2B staging!** Mad. I am coming up to 2 years now from surgery, with no evidence of disease. I asked the oncologist what she would do in my position, and she said without a nanosecond of hesitation that she would go for the chemo, adding 'the time to treat it is now'.
You may be overtreating yourself. You may already be cured. But Clear Cell is a sneaky nasty sub type of a sneaky nasty cancer. Response to chemo at this stage is much higher [20-50% based on studies] than it would be in a situation of recurrence [less than 10% based on studies]. If it was to come back, I'm afraid to say that in the UK, treatment options are limited because it's grossly under-researched.
Having the chemo was tough and devasted me financially because I don't get sick pay other than the most basic state benefits - I'm freelance. If you have financial support available you won't suffer that side of it. I can't advise you but I would ask the oncologist what they would do. Many women found this helpful.
Emily X
** I think given I have not recurred in this 2 year period hopefully means it was endometriosis causing the 'sticking' .. I did have undianosed endo.
Thank you for your response, it is very useful! I see the oncologist on Tuesday and have got a list of questions!!
My original surgeon described this chemotherapy as putting weed killer on the garden after clearance, however, being a gardener I know there is always one little bugger that reappears and I need to do my Utmost to prevent this from occurring! I have read that treatment is better earlier than with a recurrence, so I am leaning towards it. The thought of chemotherapy scares me senseless! But it is something I think about all the time. I do think that despite the awful effects of chemo, it is something that I will have to do, to know that I have done everything I possibly can.
I am learning so much reading posts and responses - this scenario is one I suspect I may have to navigate. Interesting what you say about some cancers being under researched. That was what I found about a rare sarcoma I had - what research there was was being done in India. I was in contact with a charity called Cancer 52 - the name reflects that over50% of all cancers are rare ones yet hardly reflected in media etc. Worth a read https://www.cancer52.org.uk/
