Breast Cancer Advice Center

How many times can a person go thru chemotherapy??

My mother had a radical mastectomy approx. 18 years ago and went thru chemo (green fluid at the time), about 3 to 4 years ago, she was diagnosed w/metastatic breast cancer and received chemo again (red fluid this time). Her tumor count went below 30 for 2 1/2 years now and it just spiked to 80 recently.

Public Comments

1. Every individuals tolerance for chemotherapy is different. The major factors involved in deciding on chemotherapy are prospective effectiveness, blood counts and, general health.
   
   In terms of effectiveness, cancer tends to develop resistance so combinations of multiple drugs are often used at once. Some chemotherapy drugs are stronger than others. For most late cases, the cancer has mutated so much that resistance to chemotherapy makes further treatment palliative at best.
   
   I assume the red fluid is doxorubicin (Adriamycin). It is known as the "red devil". It is commonly used for breast cancer. It is very strong and cardiotoxic. I don't know what the green fluid could be.
   
   Metastatic cancer is extremely difficult to treat. 5-year survival rates are low regardless of the cancer type.
   
   Spontaneous remissions can and do occur. Perhaps your mother can be one of them.
2. if the cancer is metastatic, she may try numerous different types of chemo to kill each area that the cancer spread to. Her tumor marker probably spiked to indicate the cancer is spreading again. Metastatic means that the cancer can spread to other organs. There is a different type of chemo for each type of cancer, or organ that it affects. She will probably get chemo until the tumor markers show no cancer.