Need help deciding to go with Chemo or not
First thank you for any responses. My wife is 30 years old and she was diagnosed with breast cancer in March. The good news is that the tumor is only 0.9cm, and classified as Stage 1, Class 2, ER+, and has a very low Oncotype DX score of 4.
She'll have to do the radiation and hormonal treatment for sure, but now we'll have to decide whether to go for Chemotherapy. With such a low oncotype score, Chemo is supposedly not necessary, but because of her young age (the oncologist said the age demographic of the Oncotype statistics average at 50+ yrs old), her medical oncologist still recommended chemo with 2 drugs, Taxotere and Cytoxan.
We were hoping for a low oncotype score so that my wife wouldn't need chemo. Now that she got a low score, it's still a very tough decision. Any recommendation? Also we were scheduled for embryo banking soon due to possibility of loss of her fertility. Now if we decided not to do chemo, is it still a good idea to do embryo banking because of 5 years of tamoxifen?
Hi Moon: Your wife has an excellent prognosis- congratulations! I'm glad she got the Oncotype-DX test, and the results there were low, too. But, as you say, her age makes everything a bit problematic... My personal opinion is, go with the chemo. It can be a literal life-saver, and though the experience is tough, there is an end to it. Chemo could send her into menopause (it probably will); in most cases, at her young age, that would be temporary. And tamoxifen will actually make her MORE fertile, not less. Nevertheless, you might want to embryo-bank, just to be sure...
FYI, take a look at this information about the chemo your wife might get. Hope it helps. Good luck! - PJH TC FAQS
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