My wife has breast cancer

New to the forum and just read this. I hope all is well. LORD willing your wife will get better.

Stay strong together
i'm very sorry to hear that

Yeah, that's terrible bro.. Stay strong.. Too bad doctors think they know it all... They took 1yr to biopsy my mom because her symptoms were not normal (either was pain or none.. Whatever one is the opposite of a pos cancer)

Low and behold, partial masectomy, lymph node removal ect ect, she lasted 15 yrs... She HAS To STAY POSITIVE!!.. That is the key I believe

Phats

I hope all is going well, my wife is also a survivor, you must stay positive.
God speed

My mom is a 10 year survivor and counting. I hope she pulls through bro.

My mother in-law is a survivor as well. I haven't seen Bigben on CBB in a while, hope all is is good bro.

My wife had a lump that put a huge scare into us just recently. My mom had a lump removed about 10yrs ago. I hope for the best for your wife. Keep fighting. thoughts and prayers from this household to yours.

Hey guys. Thanks for the kind words. I'll bring you up to date. My wife's diagnosis was around 14 months ago. She's undergone a double mastectomy with reconstruction, a nasty 6 rounds of chemo, rads, and is now on tamoxifen and a clinical trial of zolodronic acid to prevent recurrance. She's doing well and slowly rebuilding her life and energy. So far, so good, no signs of recurrance. She has to live her life to the fullest, and one day at a time. From what I've read, recurrance (which is incurable) could happen pretty much at any time, but the further you are out from initial diagnosis, the better your odds. We are staying positive, and she's doing everything she can to win this battle. The thing I'll leave you all with is to never simply accept the advice of your Doctors. If your wife or GF has some abnormality, push for a biopsy. Ultrasounds and mamograms can be false negatives. The system plays the odds, and the younger you are, the more chances they take because they believe you are less likely to have cancer at a young age. But the other side of the coin is, women who get breast cancer young, are much less likely to survive. Vigilence is about your only weapon. Don't be the one that falls through the cracks.

Glad to hear she's doing well. Which meds did they put her on if you don't mind my asking? Nolva, armidex or letro? I think letro would be the one but they may have bumped it up to aromasin in the recent years.

She was pre-menopausal, and the last cycle of chemo, docetaxol, has put her into chemopause. Whether that's permanent or not, remains to be seen. Out of caution, for a pre-menopausal woman, they start her on tamoxifen (nolvadex). She may stay on it for a couple of years, then switch to an aromatase inhibitor. It will depend on the latest evidence at that time. At this point in time, they say starting on tamoxifen and switching to an AI at 2 years has the same survival value. As well, unless she's had an oophorectomy (removal of ovaries) they don't trust an AI because she might start producing estrogen again via her ovaries. So initially they treat you as if you are still pre-menopausal. As well, tamoxifen is much more tolerable than the AI for most women. My wife is doing fine on the tamoxifen in terms of sides. On an AI many women get joint problems, carpal tunnel syndrome and osteoporosis. The survival advantage for AI over tamoxifen is yet to be proven. It does show less recurrance at 5 years, but they need more data. Another factor in tamoxifen / nolva is cyp2d6 status. That's a gene encoding the enzyme that metabolizes tamoxifen into endoxifen, its more active form. Lacking cyp2d6, or being what they call a poor metabolizer, you do considerably worse on tamoxifen. My wife test out as an intermediate metabolizer. Had to go to the states to get that tested. Even that test is contoversial. Much of cancer treatment is grey areas and debate.