About a month after surgery and before radiation started I went to see the Medical Oncologist which I was refered, Dr B we will call her. So she would recommend hormone blockers for me. Yep I gotta do the hormone blockers.
What is an oncotype?
The two Oncotype DX tests help you and your doctor make decisions about treatments after surgery for early-stage, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer or DCIS which is what I have. My tumor is Estrogen and Progesterone positive and HER2 negative. “The Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test analyzes the activity of a group of genes that can affect how an early-stage breast cancer is likely to behave and respond to treatment. The Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test is used in two ways: to help doctors figure out a person’s risk of early-stage, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer coming back in a part of the body away from the breast (distant recurrence) to help figure out if a person will benefit from chemotherapy The results of the Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test, combined with other features of the cancer, can help you make a more informed decision about whether or not to have chemotherapy to treat early-stage, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.” 1
My oncotype said my reccurrence score (out of 100) is 2. Reoccurance risk at 9 years is 3%. Benefit of Chemotherapy modalities is less than 1%. Bascally no benefit to chemotherapy for me. I’ll take those odds.
My tumor was hormone receptor positive which means it’s receptive loves estogen and progesterone. (ER+/ PR +) But it was also HER 2 negative. HER 2 is a protein that helps cancer grow quickly. Mine was not HER2 positive and was at a “zero” so no chemo will benefit me. But If a cancer cell is ER+, it means it can receive signals from estrogen instructing the cells to grow. If a cancer cell is PR+, these signals can come from the progesterone hormone. Knowing whether the tumor needs estrogen and/or progesterone to grow makes it easier to treat the cancer.
- from: https://www.breastcancer.org/screening-testing/oncotype ↩︎
