Next stop - treatment

Once my oncotype was in it was finally time to meet with the oncologist to learn more about my treatment plan.There are 4 types of breast cancer and they look at a number of factors to determine your treatment plan. First they look at the 3 receptors that determine the type and therefore the treatment. Then they look at your age, stage, size of tumor, spreading, and oncotype to advise on drugs and timeframe. The oncotype tests to see how likely you are to have it recur in the next 5-10 years.

My type is Luminal B which means that it is estrogen receptor positive, progesterone negative, and HER-2 negative and requires chemo, then radiation, then hormonal therapy for 10+ years. The oncologist said when looking at what treatment to recommend she was concerned that the tumor itself was small but had already spread to a lymph node and that in the tumor it was PR positive but then in the tissue the PR was negative. Which she said tells her it is trying to be a nastier type of cancer so a more aggressive chemo plan was her recommendation.  

She recommended a dose-dense which means every 2 weeks of 4 rounds of AC and then 4 rounds of Taxol for a total of 8 rounds over 16 weeks. Last Wednesday was my first treatment, that is a story for another post. And yes I will lose my hair, apparently on the AC it is like clockwork around day 14 I will lose all my hair. I decided to cut my hair short into a really cute pixie cut so that when it falls out it will be less messy and traumatic, I hope. See my photo album.