Odds Are...
There seem to be a lot of questions. What's the difference between chemo and radiation? Since your lymph nodes are negative, why are you having chemo? What is a port? Let me try to explain...
There are two different categories of treatment for cancer, local and systemic. Local treatments treat the area where the cancer occured and systemic treats the entire body on the chance that there are any stray cells floating around out there. Surgery is a local treatment. So is radiation. They both target the primary site of the tumor. Lumpectomy + radiation and mastectomy have local recurrence rates of <10%. Lumpectomy alone has a recurrence rate of ~40%. That's why I'm doing radiation.
Chemo and hormone therapy are both systemic treatments. Because my tumor is receptive to the hormones estrogen and progesterone, it will respond to drugs like tamoxifen and I'll start this once all of the other fun is over. This is a pill I'll take every day for the next 5 years. Chemo will kill any cancer cells that may have escaped from the breast and may be floating around in other areas of my body. My onc says any tumor over 2 cm automatically gets chemo. Mine was 2.4 cm. If I stopped with just the lumpectomy and radiation, my doctor says my chances are about 70-75%. Adding chemo knocks them up to 85-90%. Hormone therapy pushes it up over 95%. That's why I'm doing chemo.
Here's a better explanation of what a port is than I could come up with: "BardPort® implanted ports with open-ended arterial catheters are totally implantable vascular access devices that are designed to provide repeated access to the vascular system for the delivery of medications, fluids, blood products and imaging solutions. The system consists of two primary components: an injection port with a self-sealing silicone septum and a radiopaque silicone rubber beaded catheter." The port itself is about as big around as a nickel. It's located on my chest about three inches below my clavicle. Instead of trying to find one of my puny veins each time I get chemo or have blood drawn, the port can be used. Here's a link to the port I have so you can see what it looks like: Bard X-Port You can't see it when you look me; it sticks out a little bit from my chest, but you wouldn't notice it unless you were looking for it. The incision is hidden under my arm.
There are two different categories of treatment for cancer, local and systemic. Local treatments treat the area where the cancer occured and systemic treats the entire body on the chance that there are any stray cells floating around out there. Surgery is a local treatment. So is radiation. They both target the primary site of the tumor. Lumpectomy + radiation and mastectomy have local recurrence rates of <10%. Lumpectomy alone has a recurrence rate of ~40%. That's why I'm doing radiation.
Chemo and hormone therapy are both systemic treatments. Because my tumor is receptive to the hormones estrogen and progesterone, it will respond to drugs like tamoxifen and I'll start this once all of the other fun is over. This is a pill I'll take every day for the next 5 years. Chemo will kill any cancer cells that may have escaped from the breast and may be floating around in other areas of my body. My onc says any tumor over 2 cm automatically gets chemo. Mine was 2.4 cm. If I stopped with just the lumpectomy and radiation, my doctor says my chances are about 70-75%. Adding chemo knocks them up to 85-90%. Hormone therapy pushes it up over 95%. That's why I'm doing chemo.
Here's a better explanation of what a port is than I could come up with: "BardPort® implanted ports with open-ended arterial catheters are totally implantable vascular access devices that are designed to provide repeated access to the vascular system for the delivery of medications, fluids, blood products and imaging solutions. The system consists of two primary components: an injection port with a self-sealing silicone septum and a radiopaque silicone rubber beaded catheter." The port itself is about as big around as a nickel. It's located on my chest about three inches below my clavicle. Instead of trying to find one of my puny veins each time I get chemo or have blood drawn, the port can be used. Here's a link to the port I have so you can see what it looks like: Bard X-Port You can't see it when you look me; it sticks out a little bit from my chest, but you wouldn't notice it unless you were looking for it. The incision is hidden under my arm.
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