Breast cancer treatment? | Brain Tumor Blog

Breast cancer treatment?

Posted by AKA Inverse Mushroom Cloud
You?re not whiney. You?re going through one of the more rigorous treatments for cancer. You?re a hero. Enough of the whiney nonsense.

I and many other women found Taxol + Herceptin to be MUCH easier than AC. It presents its own challenges, but they are easier to tolerate for most women. I had dose dense AC with Neulasta too. It?s a butt kicker.

There are virtually no GI issues with Taxol. Perhaps a bit of constipation. Very very few people ever have nausea, and if you?re on the weekly dose, it?s almost certain you won?t. You may have a little acid indigestion ? some Pepcid can help with that.

Red cell counts can be an issue. I went anemic almost immediately, but by trying to eat iron-rich foods daily and exercising every day, I was able to avoid needing a transfusion or Procrit shot. However, you may find as the weeks go by that you are growing increasingly fatigued. Like a flight of stairs would easily wind me.

Neuropathy is a very common side effect, ranging from numbness to shooting needles in the hands or feet. I had none of these effects at all.

I did retain fluids in my legs like crazy with Taxol + Herceptin ? it continued but much reduced when I finished Taxol and continued with Herceptin only. Again, exercise and elevating the legs can help with that.

You have to be acutely careful for the first few Taxol treatments while you?re getting them. Let the nurses know immediately if you feel at all funny ? dizziness, breathing issues, etc. There is a high percentage of reactions to initial Taxol treatments.

I kept my lashes and eyebrows through AC but lost them on Taxol. However, my hair started growing back at around week 6 (of 12) of Taxol. That was cool.

If you have any other questions, feel free to email me. I didn?t get Lapatnib, but I got all the other treatments that you did.

I have a friend who is in that Lapatnib trial too. She posted a question here when she was worried about her biopsy. I kind of took her under my wing for her journey through the adventure of breast cancer.

Posted by peacelove
God can help you live a better life if you want Him to help you. You can have a personal relationship with God by saying the prayer below. God is our Creator, all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal, holy, love. God loves us and sent us His Son, Jesus Christ, so we can go to heaven if we know and follow Him. Forever means without end ? time on and on without death. Forever is what happens after we die. Either we go to heaven and be with God forever, or we go to hell which is very bad and painful forever. The good people who are saved believers in Jesus Christ go to heaven. The bad people go to hell. We need to know and follow God in this world to get to heaven in the next world. We follow God by loving and obeying Him and loving others for Him. Jesus Christ, God?s Son, is our bridge to God. Jesus died on the cross to cancel our sins. We need to accept Jesus into our life as our Lord and Savior forever to receive God?s blessing and forgiveness plus go to heaven to be with God forever after we die. This is about being a born-again Christian. Faith in God is a gift from God. You can pray for faith in God. Just speak out and ask God for the faith to believe in Him and to follow Him. Some people find faith in God when they realize the beauty in the world is made by God. Evolution can?t explain the world?s natural beauty, for example, the parks in the world, animals, flowers, peacocks, sunsets, butterflies, rainbows, etc. After you have your faith on, you can pray a sinner?s prayer to be a born-again Christian. This prayer is very important and should be said with a sincere heart and faith in God. This is the prayer: ?Dear God, I know that I am a sinner and that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for our sins. I have done the following sins (state these out) and I pray to discontinue these sins. I pray to receive Jesus Christ into my life as my Lord and Savior forever. In Jesus? name, amen.? You could find a good Christian church and try a weekly Bible study group with them to learn more. You can pray to God about your daily life and you can get a Christian church to pray for you.

Posted by Bozema
Your diagnosis was pretty similar to mine, except I was HER-2 negative. I opted for neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by lumpectomy and axillary node dissection in my case. So I did the chemo first.

The AC was a pretty tough haul for me and taxol was much, much easier. Though everyone?s different, the majority of patients I?ve met that have had this regimen say the same thing. Things should be easier with taxol. My appetite came back on taxol, my hair started growing back (it doesn?t for everyone), and I was able to exercise more. I did have a little bit of neuropathy that did go away in about 2 months time, I had trouble sleeping from the steroids (not the taxol) and toward the end I was getting fatigued. My white counts also dumped toward the end. I worked at keeping my hemoglobin up by taking a multivitamin, and eating lots of spinach and red meat. I was sick of steak by the time it was over (I could not eat red meat on AC by the way, tasted awful). With my appetite back and all the steroids, I gained weight during that time, but I never needed a transfusion because I paid attention to my labs every week and my diet.

Good luck to you!!! I just finished radiation this week and am working on getting back to normal life.

Posted by Verite R
You are not whiney ? but so many of us are made to feel this way, possibly because we all present with different side effects from drugs, and medics can?t predict what will happen. So they hope that we won?t ask them for help, because they often don?t have time to deal with all our different problems.

However, I set up a website www.after-cancer.com giving details of different side effects that we might have, and some medical solutions and approved therapies for dealing with these.

There are also ?reminders? of the fun things that we can ask for ? so enjoy it, and hope it gives you a smile, even if it isn?t useful.

Verite R

I am 42. I was diagnosed in June with invasive ductal carcinoma. Cells were Grade 3. I had mastectomy in diseased right breast and opted for prophylactic left mast. I had 2 tumors, one measured 2.5 cm and one 5mm. I also had a 9.4 cm mass with ?fingers? that pathology deemed non-important. Margins came back clear after surgery on no lymph involvement.
In the grand scheme of things, I feel pretty lucky. However, I am HER2+++.
I am wondering, I just finished my last round of dose-dense Cytoxin/Adriamyacin with nuelasta. I am starting Taxol one week later. I will be getting Hereceptin for my HER2 status and my oncologist is getting me on an adjuvant study where I may be gettting Lapatinb, which does cross the blood/brain barrier, unlike Herceptin.

My question is for those of you who may have been through similar treatment. Is the taxol easier or am I going to feel as horrible as I did from the C/A. I know it sound whiney, but I would like to know how others have dealt with it.

Thank you.
Thank you for your answers. I wanted to add that I have Googled the heck out of iverything and taken copious notes at all of my different appointments. I just know that each treatment is different for each patient and I was hoping to find someone who had been through similar diagnosis and treatment.

Hi,I did the following:

Using Dendritic Cells to Create Cancer Vaccines

November 13, 2007 presentation by Edgar Engleman for the Stanford School of Medicine Medcast lecture series. Edgar Engleman, MD, medical director of the Stanford Blood Center, discusses his research involving the use of a special type of white blood cell as a treatment for cancer. Engleman, who is also a professor of pathology at the Stanford School of Medicine, and his team of researchers have been interested in dendritic cells, or DCs, which can provoke an immune response in the body. Stanford University School of Medicine: med.stanford.edu Stanford University Channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com

from your own site.

Source: http://www.gobraintumor.info/archives/breast-cancer-treatment.html

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