Chemo first vs Surgery first?

Perhaps they want you to have chemo first because they know you have cancerous cells within your lymph nodes. They might want to begin chemotherapy treatment to reduce the risk of having those cells circulating throughout the body.

Also, for some of us (I was Her2+), having chemo first helps gauge how effective treatment is/was for our tumors.

Hope this helps. ♥️

Mine was her2+. I went thru the same steps you described. Chemo, surgery, radiation and chemo. The initial chemo killed all the cancer in the breast. It did shrink the ones in the lymph nodes. Since there was still positive residual, I’m doing kadcyla to kill anything that would have went outside of the lymph nodes. Had the initial chemo killed everything, the plan was to give me 6 treatments of immunotherapy. Wishing you the best. It’s a tough journey but I found out once I trusted my medical team and was comfortable with the treatment plan, I am more sane.

Perhaps they want you to have chemo first because they know you have cancerous cells within your lymph nodes. They might want to begin chemotherapy treatment to reduce the risk of having those cells circulating throughout the body.

Also, for some of us (I was Her2+), having chemo first helps gauge how effective treatment is/was for our tumors.

Hope this helps. ♥️

My dr wants to treat my stage 2B IDC with node involvement HR+ HER2 - cancer with chemo first approach then surgery then radiation. While I wait for an apt with her March 28th, trying to understand rational to do chemo first Vs surgery first.

Logically I feel like removing the primary tumour then treating the body makes more sense to me. My breast can’t be saved as the tumor is surrounded by calcifications that cover over a third of my b cup breast.

Any insight you can share would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I was dx 11/21 with TNBC BRCA+ after doing a lot of research after dx learned there were instances where they did chemo before surgery and that is the course my onco recommended. I had lump in breast and lump in left lymph area. Chemo shrunk everything down significantly original breast was just under 5cm reduced to about 1.7 after chemo; lymph shrunk from 2.7 to .8 - clear evidence Chemo worked and this was after my first round of just the A/C. By the end of Taxol there was almost nothing there but since when I had my biopsy I had a marker inserted; which probably didn't make much difference since I was having bilateral performed and choosing to go flat. Chemo, done; surgery, done; now I'm having radiation since there was a miniscule spot in one of the lymph pathology samples. After this I believe I move onto maintenance meds and monitoring. It's been a journey - I did my research, informed my husband of what I found and what I was choosing and my reasons and asked him to join me in those meetings I felt he was needed for information I was going to receive. I also told him the information I wanted to know and asked him to help be get those answers or to find out when and where I could get those answers. I was actually surprised at how calm I was and how focused I stayed during the meetings. I carried with me a note pad and was able to get answers to most everything I had questions about each time I had an appointment - even if it was for treatment so I could pose the question before my next appointment.

I was dx 11/21 with TNBC BRCA+ after doing a lot of research after dx learned there were instances where they did chemo before surgery and that is the course my onco recommended. I had lump in breast and lump in left lymph area. Chemo shrunk everything down significantly original breast was just under 5cm reduced to about 1.7 after chemo; lymph shrunk from 2.7 to .8 - clear evidence Chemo worked and this was after my first round of just the A/C. By the end of Taxol there was almost nothing there but since when I had my biopsy I had a marker inserted; which probably didn't make much difference since I was having bilateral performed and choosing to go flat. Chemo, done; surgery, done; now I'm having radiation since there was a miniscule spot in one of the lymph pathology samples. After this I believe I move onto maintenance meds and monitoring. It's been a journey - I did my research, informed my husband of what I found and what I was choosing and my reasons and asked him to join me in those meetings I felt he was needed for information I was going to receive. I also told him the information I wanted to know and asked him to help be get those answers or to find out when and where I could get those answers. I was actually surprised at how calm I was and how focused I stayed during the meetings. I carried with me a note pad and was able to get answers to most everything I had questions about each time I had an appointment - even if it was for treatment so I could pose the question before my next appointment.