 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Breast Cancer / October 2003ER+, PR-
Hello All, After a conversation with our allocated support nurse, I've been worrying for a week that my wife's tumour was ER- and that Tamoxifen was not indicated. Tonight we saw the oncologist and the tumour (fully removed with good margins) is ER+ but PR- and Tamoxifin is prescribed. I wonder what the implications of PR- are (I know what the initials mean). Further, there is a delay of up to 12 weeks before radiotherapy can start in this locality (insured surgery but NHS radio facilities). The oncologist says no problem with the delay providing Tamoxifen is used immediately. She said her recommendation would be 8 weeks anyway because of the rate of healing of the wound. Is there no problem with 12 weeks or should we find other facilities? Apparently a new machine is being commissioned because of the demand in our catchment area of 500k people. Thanks for your help, Robin Aston. >I wonder what the implications of PR- are (I know what the initials mean). I don't know what the initials mean. Help! Thanks. - Tony  SignatureTony Lima /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign \ / against HTML mail X and postings / \ Robin wrote << Is there no problem with 12 weeks or should we find other facilities? Apparently a new machine is being commissioned because of the demand in our catchment area of 500k people. Thanks for your help, >> Hi Robin, I am not sure about the optimum time to begin rads after surgery. Is your wife having any chemo or was that not indicated? > Hello All, > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Robin Aston. PR- means that the test for progesterone receptors was negative, which implies that the cancer probably does not use progesterone as a growth factor. This result is not very significant for prognosis. See our FAQ at www.cancersupporters.com, "Terminology and Abbreviations used in cancer" I don't think there is any problem in waiting 12 weeks before starting radiation. This is typically the time it takes for cancer cells to divide once, so the increase in any cancer remaining between 8 and 12 weeks is not very significant. I just heard on the BBC news this morning complaints from the radiologists that demand is increasing faster than supply for this service. Tim Jackson Tim wrote << I don't think there is any problem in waiting 12 weeks before starting radiation. This is typically the time it takes for cancer cells to divide once, so the increase in any cancer remaining between 8 and 12 weeks is not very significant.>> Wouldn't that hold true for the majority of cancers but not necessarily if one had a more aggressive form? <<I just heard on the BBC news this morning complaints from the radiologists that demand is increasing faster than supply for this service.>> One wonders if that means the incidence has increased or if more are being dx'd because of more awareness and better sensitivity of techniques used for dx... >PR- means that the test for progesterone receptors was negative, which >implies that the cancer probably does not use progesterone as a growth >factor. This result is not very significant for prognosis. As always, thanks to Tim. I know my wife is ER+ HER2/neu- but had never heard of PR. Now I know what and why. - Tony SignatureTony Lima /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign \ / against HTML mail X and postings / \ .> .> implies that the cancer probably does not use progesterone as a growth > factor. This result is not very significant for prognosis. .> I don't think there is any problem in waiting 12 weeks before starting > radiation. Thank you Tim and all others who responded to my questions. I think it's time for us to believe that my wife is getting the best care and settle down to a slightly less tranquil life. That's not to say that I won't try to stay on top of the information stream, I think it's a survival factor. Thanks again, Robin Aston. > I just heard on the BBC news this morning complaints from the radiologists > that demand is increasing faster than supply for this service. I hope not, because the radiologists are the ones 'creating' the demand for irradiation by dx BC from their mammograms, the clinical oncs (the uk term for rad. oncs) have to treat them.. Or are they just running out of film? :-/ Signaturemadiba > > I just heard on the BBC news this morning complaints from the radiologists > > that demand is increasing faster than supply for this service. > I hope not, because the radiologists are the ones 'creating' the demand > for irradiation by dx BC from their mammograms, the clinical oncs (the > uk term for rad. oncs) have to treat them.. > Or are they just running out of film? :-/ It was a quote from the radiology professional body. They accepted that more money was being provided, but it takes time for money to be translated into trained radiologists, or even new machinery. I did wonder what was creating the additional demand, that was not clarified. One can hardly blame the rads. for diagnosing more cases if the cases are presenting. Whether we are seeing improved detection (UK after all was historically not doing very well at that) or simply more cases, (eg because we are living longer) I don't know. Neither was it clear exactly what the shortage was of. Certainly there is a chronic shortage of clinical oncologists. Tim > Further, there is a delay of up to 12 weeks before radiotherapy can start > in this locality (insured surgery but NHS radio facilities). The [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > should we find other facilities? Apparently a new machine is being > commissioned because of the demand in our catchment area of 500k people. Recent canadian studies (huge meta-analysis, using 8 weeks as the limit) do show a significant increase in local recurrence of BC for women not receiving chemo. Whether tamoxifen is a suitable gap-filler for preventing local recurrence is unproven. There is a renaissance in RT depts all over the UK with Tony Blair pumping in money as fast as he can print it, so which region still has 3 month waiting times? Signaturemadiba > There is a renaissance in RT depts all over the UK with Tony Blair > pumping in money as fast as he can print it, so which region still has 3 > month waiting times? West Berkshire but apparently typical of southern UK. Robin Aston |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.