Does she really need chemotherapy?

[rjpetty04]

My mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer in June of this year (2008). She had surgery in July to remove the small tumor in her right breast and everything seemed fine.

Then the doctors decided that they should do a lymph node biopsy to make sure the cancer had not spread.

So they did that then sent her to an oncologist and a radiologist for a consult. They decided that she should have radiation to prevent recurrence and my mother-in-law agreed to do it.

That was over three weeks ago. They have marked her for her radiation treatment that was scheduled to begin on the 15th of September.

Well today my mother-in-law went to see the oncologist and they told her that they received the Oncotype DX Results of her tumor that says she should have chemotherapy because it is a more serious cancer then they thought.


Does she really need it? Do the doctors really know what they are doing? Why havent they started treatment if the cancer is so serious?

We can use all the advice you all can give.

Thanks

[amberj]

The decision to prescribe chemotherapy is based on what kind of cancer your mom had, how aggressive it is, and several hormonal markers like estrogen and progesterone etc. It takes a while for these results to come back from the lab. The purpose of the lumpectomy was to remove the tumor from the breast, the purpose of radiation is to shrink any cells that are microscopic, and the purpose of chemotheraphy is to kill cancer. My mom just had a mastectomy last wed. after two lumpectomies came back with microscopic cells at the edges of the samples. chemo also affects the probability of cancer reoccuring. Good luck and best wishes.