Which stage am I?

Lynette

My lump was about 3cm grade 1 and I had one positive sentinal node. The axillary nodes under my arm were clear (I had 16 removed). Am I stage 2a or 2b? Also is having one positive sentinal node less serious than having a positive axillary node? Confused. Thank you in advance. 

Beesie

Lynette,

A 3cm tumor is classified as a T2 tumor (a tumor more than 2cm but not more than 5cm in size). 

Having one positive node is classified as N1 (metastasis to 1 to 3 axillary nodes).  A sentinel node is considered to be an axillary node; the sentinel node is simply the first node in the long string of axillary nodes. 

Grade and hormone status, while important to the treatment plan, are not considered in staging.

So, what this means that your diagnosis is T2, N1, M0.  This is Stage IIB.

You can get all the details on pages 57- 59 of the following file: http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/breast.pdf

bluedasher

What Bessie says matches what I've read. To explain a bit more about sentinal nodes - it isn't like everyone has the same lymph nodes connected up the same. The structure of the lymph node network has some variation. When they do a sentinal node biopsy, they inject dye around the tumor. Then they look for the axillary node (or small number of nodes) that gets dyed. (By dye, I mean either a colored substance or a radioactive one - sometimes they use both.) That gives them a way to find the axillary lymph node(s) that the lymph fluid in the tumor area flows through first.