What to do?

SRN

What to do?

SRN

Hi, I am new to the site.  As a matter of fact I am new to chatting on line period.  But I have questions and worries and would like to try and get some feed back.   My mom has just recently been diagnosed with Stage 2 Grade 3 IDC size of tumor was 2.1 cm.  She underwhent a masectomy and will soon be undergoing chemotherapy (AC with Paclitaxel) followed by hormone treatment.  I know without a doubt that this is serious but what I don't know is the prognosis with it being a Grade 3.  She had cancer once before on her kidney and had it removed, the whole kidney that is.  But here we go again.  Yes different cancer but still cancer.  Well I will pause for now and see if I have caught anyones attention.  Thanks in advance.

SRN

TenderIsOurMight

Hi SRN,



Welcome to this board. It is filled with a lot of lovingly supportive and helpful individuals, and I hope since you're new to chatting on line that you'll find it helpful.



The Grading component of breast cancer involves a judgement call by your Mom's pathologist, who looked at her tumor under the microscope and judged a number of factors: the presence or absence of cells in tubules, the number of active cell divisions in the microscope viewing window, or series of them, and the nuclear appearance. The more the ductal cancer cells resembles a normal breast ductal cells in these qualities, the more "well" differentiated it is, or "low" grade, and so forth through "intermediate" and lastly "high" grade. Grading is just one factor in the analysis.



Prognosis is a complex mixture of findings and differing weight placed by experts on them. Size of tumor (you're Mom's size is not unusual), lymph node involvement and number, grade, ER/PR receptors (your Mom has these which helps) HER2 status, and a few other variables, including age, all join together to give some idea of prognosis.



Perhaps your Mom's doctor could go over Adjuvant!, an online computer aid which factors in many of these variables, with you. There is also a patient version, I believe, which would allow you to take a look. Usually one's oncologist helps you with this question, if asked.



You sound like a wonderful daughter, asking some hard questions. It is serious, and she's going to get serious treatment. I'm sure you'll be around her, even in thought, which is what really counts.



Please feel free to post other questions, feelings, what ever you wish, and we will try to help you. We all understand this is a difficult time, and take hubris in being able to help in any way.



Tender

iodine

Hi SRN, welcome to the boards, Tender has ans your questions and I hope you'll feel good about comming here with any more questions or just to let us know how it's going with you and/or your mom.

It's really tough when someone we love is threatened, and we know that.  Esp. our moms.  You are a fine daughter, and it shows that you love your mom.  I'm sure she knows it, too.

By the way, it's OK if she sees you cry.  I didn't know if you knew that, but as a mom, my son tried to hide that from me and I was able to make him feel better by letting him know it was ok.  Maybe your mom feels the same way.

JoelKM

Grade is not as big a factor in long term prognosis as ER/PR status and node status. You can find some forthright statistics on Imaginis.com. Make sure you get a copy of the pathology report.