Breast Cancer treatment

Hi there, thank you in advance for any information and clarity that anyone would be able to provide for my family and myself.
My mom was diagnosis with breast cancer 4 weeks ago. She had already had a mastectomy, she had a 3 cm IDC tumor and they removed 1 of her lymph nodes. Now we are waiting for the treatment to start. Her doctors recomended 4 sessions of chemotherapy, following by radiation therapy after that and maybe hormones therapy as well.
Here is the pathology report.

Diagnosis: Breast, Left, Inflitrating carcinoma.
- EstrogenHormone replacement therapy Receptor: POSITIVE
  * Associated with relatively favorable outcome and responsiveness to hormonal therapy
  * Proportion score = 4/5
  * Intensity score = 3/3

- ProgesteroneSerum progesterone Receptor: POSITIVE
  * Associated with relatively favorable outcome and increased responsiveness to hormonal therapy
  * Proportion score = 2/5
  * Intensity score = 2/3

- erbB2/Her2 Over-expression: INDETERMINATE
  * HercepTest score = 2+

We would really appreciate any information and/or advice.

[Cleveland Clinic]

Dear yenny23:  Treatments for breast cancer are determined by a number of factors including size of cancer, lymph node status, how the cells look on the microscope, hormone receptor status, HER2 status and the health of the patient.  Without evaluation, it is not possible for us to make specific treatment recommendations.  You may want to discuss this further with her oncologist.  If you are concerned, you could obtain a second opinion.

[lizziecee]

Your Mum's prognosis sounds good, being ER/PR+ means she can have hormonal treatment like tamoxifen or Arimidex. However, she does need to know her HER2 status. I was ER+, PR not done, 5 yrs ago, and had the HER2 test privately last year, which was negative thankfully. This test was not available in England at the time of my dx.

I don't understand why you say she had only one lymph node removed...was this by sentinel node biopsy? If it was clear, that is great news.

Because of the size of my tumour, 2 cm with associated DCIS, and the lymph node spread, I was strongly advised to have chemo and rads, which I did. Not great but doable. Your Mum's 3 cm tumour is rather large and if her HER2 is positive she really should get Herceptin. From my own research, and talking to my Oncologist, it is unusual for a patient with ER/PR+ to also be HER+, but not unknown. I believe if there is some doubt she can get a FISH test for HER2 status. You may want to talk to her Oncologist about this test.
Take care,
Liz.