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| Forum | Questions | Ask a Question | |
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Facts and Myths about Breast Cancer Questions on the facts and myths of breast cancer. |
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| Asked | Publicly Submitted Question | ||
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| 1/24/2011 | I have invasive breast cancer, stage 1, grade two, did not spread to nodes. I will be going for radiation soon but do not wish to take hormonal treatment - I have read literally hundreds of comments from users and the side effects are simply horrible - the weigh gain immense (which can create more estrogen) I am wondering how this will affect my outcome for recurrence. I am 63 years old and am being treated for high blood pressure, have had some liver problems in the past and have mild osteoporosis and some osteoarthritis. I do not want to spend the next 5 years feeling sick and being in pain and dealing with weight gain. | ||
| Replied | JHU's Breast Center Reply | ||
| 1/24/2011 | First, not all women have terrible side effects. so don't throw the towel in before giving it a try. hormonal therapy will reduce your risk of recurrence by half. that's significant. radiation helps to prevent recurrence in the breast from happening. hormonal therapy further reduces that risk but more importantly helps to reduce risk of distant recurrence--- metastatic disease. many women assume that if their nodes were negative then they can't get stage IV metastatic breast cancer. unfortunately that isn't true. a portion of women who were stage 1 and node negative (about 10% actually) will later get stage IV. the body can use the blood stream to carry the cancer cells elsewhere in the body. so revisit the issue of hormonal therapy with your medical oncologist before deciding to not give it a try. | ||
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