recommended doing no chemo after surgery for exactly this reason — in the risk vs benefit analysis, he said that the chemo had the potential to do more harm than good. He said that my odds were already so good that chemo would not increase my odds since there are no 100% guarantees from any chemo.He discussed my case with the hospital’s Tumor Board and the other doctors agreed with him. He didn’t want to put my body through chemo if there was nothing significant to be gained from it and plenty of potential harm.
A lot of well-meaning people, who had never had cancer or chemo (and who were not oncologists), wondered if it was a good idea to just zap my entire body with chemo “just to make sure that no rogue cancer cell got away”. They imagined it as a kind of whole body preventive chemo with no downside and a lot of peace of mind. But it’s actually something you don’t inflict your body with unless you have to.
My doc was right. The surgery did the trick. He monitored me closely (every 3 months for the first 2 years, then every 6 months, then once a year) but we never did chemo.
I’ve been cancer-free for over 11 years now.
