Gastric bands and chemotherapy

Right back atcha!

Jean

P.S. - I'm just crushed - Diana blocked me after reading my post.

I didn't have ovarian cancer but I was diagnosed with breast cancer in September. I had RNY in January of 09 and that was one of my first questions. "Will the fact that I have had gastric bypass change my treatment plan?" The answer was, "no"
I had 6 rounds of chemo and currently taking herceptin every three weeks till November. The chemo I had was the standard Taxotere and Carboplatin just as if I didn't have gastric bypass. My oncologist (I am being treated at the Mayo) said having RNY was a "non issue" as to my treatment plan.
I had a highly aggressive grade three triple positive tumor which had spread to 2 lymph nodes.

 It helps that all of those are intravenous drugs. They may have had more concerns if you had a different cancer with a different recommended treatment. Are you also taking hormone inhibitors?

I am also on annastrozole which is a hormone inhibitor

Hugs! How are you doing now?

I am (finger's crossed) doing ok now. I finished chemo on March 11th and they say it takes awhile to get back to normal. My hair is finally coming in as thick as it ever was. It's about one inch long now. I think I tolerated chemo very well. My profile picture was me taken on St Patrick's day, so just barely a week after my last chemo. I only last about 45 minutes out with friends (it's a wig of course) but I think it's not too bad for someone just barely after chemo! I will change it soon though.
They say they got all the cancer out with surgery so it's up to the chemo and herceptin and annastrozole to make sure anything that may have gotten out was killed and stays dead. I am living my life as if I am cancer free and counting my blessings.

Lislme, so sorry to hear about your problems. I am sure any RNY people reading this will be very pleased to know your treatment has not been affected. My friend's sister's problem was that the best chemo drugs were oral not intravenous. But I am sure that there are often intravenous alternatives.

My very best wishes. Kate

It was one of my main concerns when I found out I had breast cancer. I was very worried that I had somehow signed a "death sentence" to myself when I chose RNY.  My oncologist at the Mayo is actually listed as one of the top oncologists in the nation so I believe him when he says it didn't make a difference and I was so relieved.
Also, I think it may have helped a bit because since RNY I have yet to have even one bout of heartburn, acid indigestion or anything like that. Whereas a lot of people who I have communicated with on the breast cancer board have quite a bit of those sorts of problems on chemo, I was not affected with that at all. My appetite was very poor and I lost a bit of weight after each round of chemo but I was never nauseous or suffered with heartburn.
I cant speak for other cancers. I haven't any first hand knowledge, I just know for me it was fine and I am thankful for that  :)

This is an informative read and I am definitely bookmarking this topic.

There are some Interesting answers on here. Clearly there are differing ( non-expert) views and also different ideas among oncologists. It seems to me that Dev ( who has worked in this area rather than just reading about it) is perhaps close to the truth. Because ot the lack of clinic trials with oral chemo treatments, docs prefer not to risk unproven dosages.

This, by the way, was not intended to be a controversial thread! If I had meant it as praise for the band and damning other wls, I would have posted it on other boards. I restricted it to this bord deliberately in the hope of avoiding aggressive replies! Silly me! Thanks to those *****plied constructively, both in and not in agreement with m point. This helps everyone!

Kate