Have you had the opportunity to sit down and talk about your cancer diagnosis with your oncologist?

GregP_WN

Did you use that opportunity to ask pertinent questions about your specific case? Our blog post today has some information on things you might want to ask about. Take a look here>> https://bit.ly/3krCL0p

Jayne

Such helpful information, Jane! Wish I had this going into my diagnosis.

JaneA

Jayne, all of us are blindsided by our diagnosis and don't know what to ask. But we can ask these questions in the first few months of treatment to get a better handle on our personal situation. Thank you.

Bengal

My oncologist, oncology PA (with whom I had most of my follow-up until he moved to another state) and especially my oncology surgeon have always been generous with their time which has been greatly appreciated. Sometimes I had to call them back when they were halfway out the door but for the most part they did come back whenever I indicated I had questions or problems that needed further discussion.

alivenwell

Yes. He was somewhat hesitant to give chemotherapy. His coworker was all for the chemo. The surgeon just removed the tumor and wanted chemo to play it safe. I'll let you know after next month when I will possibly be cancer free for 8 years.

legaljen1969

@alivenwell, so did you have the chemo or not? I had breast cancer and all of my testing revealed that chemotherapy was not indicated for me. Testing showed that it would not decrease my risk of recurrence by more than 1% and my risk was fairly low anyhow.

Do other types of cancers do genetic or genomic testing to check recurrence risk? I am trying to learn a little bit about what others go through in terms of how they decide if they have radiation or chemo or whatever else.

My oncologist was like "If you WANT chemo, I can't stop you from having chemo but there is no indication it would do anything for you." For the record, I didn't want to have to chemo and I didn't ask for it, but he said he had patients who were bound and determined that chemo was going to help. I would have rather let them take both my breasts than have chemo to reduce the chance of recurrence.

alivenwell

Yes. Chemo was done for six months starting Dec 2012.

alivenwell

They find genetic tendencies for cancer. The type I had went from my grandmother to my father, then me. The hard part of this is getting a BRCA test. If it detects cancer, then the test taker has a pre-existing condition.