stay strong TS

the prognosis for early stage breast CA is incredibly good, this is from the real world data that i have seen and handled.

also worrying and maybe u can take solace in the fact is that u are not alone as i have seen patients as young as 20-30 with breast cancer.

can narrow down to 4 types of treatments

surgery: either a local excision of the lump called a wide local excision and the surgeon will send the sample to the pathologist to check whether the excision margins are free from cancer, if its not free, meaning that the removal wasn't deep enough and u might need to go for total removal of the breast called mastectomy. in some cases, the doctor might order a lymph node dissection to assess whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes.

hormone therapy: if your cancer is ER positive, the oncologist may prescribe tamoxifen for u

and finally radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

usually, patients with early stage cancer will opt for WLE surgery which is a very quick one, in and out of the hospital in 3 days or less without any fuss followed by hormone, radio or chemotherapy depending on their preference and the oncologist, i highlighted preference because u do have a choice in the final say in treatment. in some cases, patients do opt for a wait-and-see approach without any adjuvant treatments with frequent check ups.

alternatively, some start on chemo or hormone therapy first before undergoing surgery.

in many cases, the alternate sees a reduction in lump size and or total absence of cancer cells after the lump is excised and taken for pathological examination

for safety and peace of mind, some patients opt directly for mastectomy even at stage 1, if u are concern about the psychological effect, there are skin-sparing mastectomy u can consider.

finally, speak to your oncologist and not /k!!!! i cannot emphasize this enough, kindly ignore all the non-medical mumbo jumbo about alternative therapies because these do NOT work. if u are considering any alternative therapy, make sure u discuss with your doctor first

This post has been edited by pipedream: Jan 24 2024, 10:15 PM