Treatment options

My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in early August. She had surgery removing a 3.2 cm tumor. Six small clusters of cancer cells were found in the sentinel node, but 4 axillary nodes removed were clear. The cancer was determined to be Stage II, ER+, Her2-, Intermediate grade infiltrating ductal carcinoma. She had to have a second surgery when pathology found that the margins were not clear.
Our oncologist has prescribed dose dense AC 4 treatments every 2 weeks followed by Taxol 4 treatments every 2 weeks.  After the chemo, she will undergo 6 weeks of radiation 5x/week to the tumor site and axillary node region. She will then go on a 5 year hormone pill because of the ER/PR+ type of cancer. She had been through the first 2 AC treatments.
We have read so much negative about the Taxol, is there any clinical evidence that this course of treatment is the right one for her type and staging? What may be an optional choice to the Taxol?

[lhughes69]

That sounds like the typical treatment I was prescibed for stage 3, same characteristics.  I was allergic to Taxol and took Abraxane instead.  

I've read some of the articles that Taxol is not as useful for some tumors, however, it still falls under the "might help, doesn't hurt" philosophy.  The A/C works on DNA, Taxol on RNA (or something like that) and the radiation just kills everything, pretty much.  It's the best they know to do at this time.  Hopefully in the future they can get more specific, but right now they are just trying their best to keep the cancer from reproducing.

I hope you have good outcome with the treatment.  I did all this while pregnant, and with God's help, all is well now, including the baby.  Have a good group of people to support you and a lot of faith in whatever you believe.  Keep a positive attitude, walk, drink lots of water, and a good dose of Phenergan (makes you sleep) or Zofran (won't make you sleep) will keep the nausea at bay.