Breast cancer... Should i take Kemo? Yes or No?

Question

its really hard for me to decide im 16!!!!!!! This is NOT suppose to happen... right?

Answer 1

well ive been through 16 rounds of chemo,, 6 weeks radation...yes its a lot for you to deal with ....but there even younger people with cancer...i have seen a lot of small kids as young as 3 years old haveing to go through chemo...if you need to talk just e- mail me...good luck to you.

Answer 2

YES - YOU SHOULD TAKE KEMO.

While breast cancer in young women accounts for a small percentage of all breast cancer cases, the impact of this disease is great. So there is now wonder if you are diognised cancer. You will be astonished to note that breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women ages 15 to 54: Young women are often diagnosed at a later stage than their older counterparts.
Young women diagnosed with breast cancer often feel isolated and have little contact with peers who can relate to what they are experiencing.
If you are confirmed of the disease by an Oncologist there is no other go than having the treatments. So, kindly co-operate with your doctors and parents and have the Chemotherapy. They will give it for 2 or 3 cycles and then Radiation therapy. You will feel terribly shaken because of the side effect. but what to do. If full treatment is not given think of the consequences. It is very much required to have them as - CANCER IS STILL AN ENIGMA.

We all pray for your speedy recovery. Best of Luck

Answer 3

It is rare for someone so young to get breast cancer but it does happen. My doctor told me for three years that my lump wasn't cancer because I was so young. I was finally dignosed at 26. Older than you, but still in the stage of life where it is considered rare. Breast cancer tends to be way more aggressive in younger people so please do what the docs think is best. If you would feel better with a second opinion then by all means do that. I would recommend it. There are some great books out there for young women facing breast cancer. Try looking some up on Amazon.com using the key words "young breast cancer". Your oncologist likely wants you to have chemo because of the stage of your cancer or to be on the safe side. If your lymph nodes were involved then by all means, definitely get the chemo!!!! I'm so sorry that you had to have this burden put on you at such an age but you are strong and at 16 I'm sure that your mentality is that nothing can get you down. Keep it that way and Keep your head held high and come out of this with a better understanding of yourself. It will all be behind you before you know it. Keep having fun and STAY POSITIVE!! People will admire your strength. Check out www.youngsurvival.org for support groups and information concerning young women with cancer. Good Luck!!

Answer 4

Sixteen year olds can have breast cancer too. It is not common, but it happens.

My son was 17 years old when he developed an abdominal sarcoma that spred throughout his body. The way that his cancer was treated was with systemic high dose chemotherapy of Doxirubicin, Cytoxan, Vincristine, Etoposide, and Ifosomide for eight months. He had a total of nine treatments. He responded to the chemotherapy and the tumors shrunk or disappeared. He than underwent a debulking surgery to remove most of the tumors. He had a second surgery to remove the rest of the tumors and they than bathed his abdomen with heated chemotherapy. For the next 8 months he underwent even more chemotherapy. And, he did VERY well. He has since graduated from high school and is taking college classes.

I am not sure who is treating your disease, but I would recommend a pediatric oncology team. They understand kids and teens.

Stay strong.

Answer 5

If you have a breast cancer diagnosis at sixteen, I'm sorry to hear it. However, you're not alone. Aggressive breast cancer can occur in young women in several circumstances, most notably the mutation of one of the "breast cancer genes" BRCA1 or BRCA2. These mutations run in some families and can be associated with strong tendency to develop breast cancer at a young age. You may or may not have a family history as such, but it is still something you may want to have yourself screened for. If it is something that has developed in you or your family, there may be others at risk and your later children may also be at risk. This testing and counselling is provided by a clinical genetecist, and your oncologist (cancer doctor) would probably know to whom you should be referred.

The therapy for breast cancer is typically a combination of surgery and chemotherapy with or without hormone therapy. To a degree, it depends on the specific biochemistry of the tumor. Some tumors have cells with specific surface receptors that make them suitable for effective treatments using medicines designed to interact with those receptors.

Without chemotherapy, only a small subset of women with breast cancer will do well. These are the women with small localized tumors and no evidence of spread. Many women have some degree of spread at the time of diagnosis, and this is confirmed at the time of surgery by sampling the lymph nodes in the armpit. For young women with cancer, the tendency would be to be MORE aggressive with chemotherapy treatment because the patient is probably as healthy as can be, and the side effects of the medications are therefore minimized. The amount of life lost by being incomplete in treatment is huge, and most doctors would be against risking inadequate treatment.

Without knowing a variety of specifics about your situation, I can't make any directed comments. What I can say, however, is that chemotherapy for breast cancer is highly effective and surgery alone is seldom completely effective. Even if the combination is not curative and the cancer comes back, the amount of time that is cancer free is substantially more, if chemotherapy is used. Recurrent cancers can be treated as well. Typically, if so, they are treated with chemotherapy and/or radiation, not surgery.

I hope that answers your question.

Good luck, and please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions from this.

Answer 6

Breast cancer is quite curable especially in early stages. I would definitely try the chemo especially at your age - you have your whole life in front of you. Most people do better than expected. Don't let these people here scare you - we have better ways to treat side effect these days. I have a 25 year old female with breast cancer that has finished her chemo almost a year ago and has done great. There is no evidence of her cancer recurring.

Answer 7

chemo kills the white blood cells that fight off infection in your body. i had a lump removed (10-25-06) and the DR didn't get all the cancer. the radiologist said to have another surgery to remove the cancer. i decided to have a mastectomy (11-15-06). i have 2 years to decide if i want reconstuction. once the breast is removed the cancer won't come back. if the breast remains after chemo or/and radiation the cancer can come back in the breast.my husband told me to do what i think is best for me. now i am saying to you, do what you think is best for you. after all it is your body.today cancer can hit anyone, at any age. GOOD LUCK

Answer 8

Absolutely not. Seek out another opinion before you take this step. Chemo is falsely presented as the ONLY option, when it is probably inherently insane. Cleanse your body, purify your body, nourish your body with fresh, alkalinizing foods. Stop eating Wheat, Dairy, and anything that comes with a label! Only Nature provides the answers, and if you need hard science to back this up go to www.vitasearch.com, or www.pubmed.com, which will provide you with more than enough proof that scullcap, for instance, is an aromatase inhibitor effective against estrogen dependent cancers (versus Arimidex, a poison), or Tumeric, a well known Spice, which has been demonstrated effective on dozens of cancers, or flaxmeal lignans, or cultured soy isoflavones like genistein, or American Ginseng which has been shown in numerous studies to kill breast cancer cells, or CoQ10, another breast cancer destroying agent. Don't get sucked into the medical hype. These guys usually don't know their *** from their elbow when it comes to understanding the body, and the true nature of healing. They take the "WMD," or Weapons of Mass Destruction Approach. You body is like Iraq to these militataristic psychos....they are willing to destroy (last count 600,000 Iraqis) in order to "liberate" them/you, from the hypothetical evil - is it really there? Whose the real "terrorist"/"cancer" here? Its a freakin mess! Seriously, do some heavy research before you make any such life-altering decision!

Answer 9

YES! fight the best you can! Your body is young and you are powerful! You have very very big chances to win cancer! Don't be afraid!!! This experience will make you mature and stronger!

Answer 10

Is this a trick question? I have never known breast cancer in a 16 year old. If it is not, follow the advice of your oncologist or if you do not have one, get one.