Meeting the Oncologist

A big afternoon for Laura and Joshua. First, a visit to a fertility specialist - basically found out the various avenues to pursue having a child after cancer treatment/surgery. Pretty overwhelming information. Then on to the long anticipated appointment with the oncologist that had been highly recommended. The doctor spent a substantial amount of time presenting us with the facts and answering all of our questions regarding the treatment plan.

The tumor biology showed:

• no estrogen/progesterone receptors (will not respond to hormone treatment)
• high Ki-67 score-76% (more aggressive within the aggressive category)
• negative HER-2neu receptors (eliminates one type of possible chemo)

Although the PET scan turned out negative (meaning no discernible cancer in other organs), the oncologist wants to attack this aggressive cancer in a big way and quickly. So, she is recommending that Laura begin chemotherapy right away. She will begin dose dense chemo of Adriamycin followed by Taxol for 16 weeks. Subsequent surgery is planned, which may be moved up if the cancer is not responsive to chemo. The oncologist is hoping this will shrink the cancer and knock the hell out of any other cancer cells in her body – if there are any.

We will wait for the surgeon to schedule installation of a port for the chemo medication to be administered, and treatment would begin the following day.