 | Stage 1 BC, Chemotherapy, and Long Term Side Effects |
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My sister in law was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and is now deciding
whether she will have chemotherapy or not. She's Stage 1 and node negative, .7
cm, and had an MRM. Pretty good stats, but some of her pathology was also
unfavorable (invasive, ER/PR negative, mom died of bc), so her decision isn't
cut-and-dried. Her doctors are recommending chemo but she's very apprehensive
about the possible long term side effects. (I personally chose to have AC with similar pathology, but I don't want to
influence her with my own opinions and come off as blatantly pro-chemo). Can anyone offer information on links that specifically address the
decision-making process regarding chemo? All the literature seems to focus on
the (relatively small) increased odds that chemo offers Stage 1 women, without
acknowledging their concerns about damage to heart, ovaries, liver, etc. She
feels like these risks are significant, and I'm trying to find information to
help her weigh the benefits against the risks.
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-We have a curious love affair with chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy MAY reduce the odds of death by 33% in a woman with stage 1
breast cancer.
That is, it MAY increase the 10 year survival from 94% to 96%.
Seems like a pretty minimal improvement to me, but each patient needs to
make the decision. -I was interested to know more about long term side effects of chemotherapy. I
have wilm's tumor and I have received adriamicin, procytox, vincristin and
vp-16, for 6 months.
I had adriamicin and vincristin over a period of 2 1/2 yrs and had no long-term
side effects.
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