CT scan

jan-m

Does anyone know if a CT scan shows if lymph nodes have cancer in them?  I had a CT scan (pre chemo) on friday and scheduled for a mastectomy this coming wednesday.. so I am wondering if I may be able to avoid the axillary node dissection.. if the CT scan can detect this sort of thing and if it shows that there is no cancer of course  

lexislove

Yes, it should.

But any type of scan you can have false positives or negatives. There are woman on the boards who for instanse did chemo first, before surgery, had a scan that showed no signs of cancer....had their surgery with lymph nodes removed.....and surprise! Cancer.

Best to have the ALD to be on the safe side.

karen1956

I don't know if a CT scan shows this, but I had an MRI after initial Dx which light up the lymph nodes and so they were biopsied....and positive for cancer....so when I had my bilat (one side prophy), an axilary dissection was done on the cancer side...good luck to you with your surgery...wishing you an easy recovery time.

jan-m

Thank you ladies, for the good advice.. I will take it! and thanks so much karen for the good wishes.. much appreciated.  This web site and especially this discussion board has helped me a great deal with peace of mind and making good decisions. Knowledge is power!

Thanks again!

pupfoster1

Not sure about a CT, I know I had a PET before surgery and it did not pick up the cancerous nodes.  I think you would be remiss not to have them checked during surgery. If the sentinal node (the first one they check) comes back clean they usually don't need to remove anymore.

Hope all goes well!
Sharon

Hope_M

My oncologist specifically told me that unless a lymph node was already enlarged due to cancer, it would not show up as suspicious on a CT.  That is the advantage of the PET, which can tell the difference in a normally-sized lymph node with cancer vs. one that doesn't have cancer.

 Hope M.

jan-m

Thanks Sharon!  When I had my lumpectomy in March the sentinal node that was removed was positive.  There were also a few surprises in my breast.. another tumour and also a little ILC with indian file pattern and one margin that wasn't clear.. hence the mastectomy.. but was trying to avoid the axillary dissection  I never thought about the possibility of false positve or negative results though and I guess it is best to eradicate any form cancer before I start chemo!

Thanks again!

jan-m

Thank you Hope!  One more good reason for me to have the axillary node dissection.. darn it

YATCOMW

I had 17+ positive nodes and they didn't show up on ct, pet scan, sonogram or mammogram......nor could you feel them ......

Jacqueline 

Pure

me too. I had 2 doctors tell me they couldn't feel a thing. Mine were very small-that is probably why.

jan-m

Thank you Jacqueline & Pure... you along with everyone else who replied saved me from trying to get a hold of my onc and surgeon.  I will be having my mastectomy AND axillary node dissection tomorrow.. whether I like it or not

Thanks for all of your help.. I really appreciate it!

Let-It-Be

Just chiming in, I had neo chemo, mri showed nothing in nodes, u/s showed nothing, nothing palpable... 7 out of 10 had microscopic cancer, less than a millimetre.  So glad I got them out.

AnacortesGirl

I'm glad to hear you opted for the dissection.  Better to know now.

It's been 4 days so hopefully we'll from you soon on how you are doing.

jan-m

Thanks for chiming in Let-it-be and AnacortesGirl My surgery went well and I am now officially a uniboob!  I have 2 drains and the amounts are quite low.. hoping I will be getting them out this week sometime!  Not much pain.. under and down my arm is quite numb.. so maybe the pain kicks in when the numbess goes away? The one node that showed positive on my 1st surgery was the same as yours Let-it-be.. less than 1 mm.. so I wondered what the chances of there being anymore in any of the others.. so now I won't be surprised if there is. How do those nodes work anyway?  and what is the relevance of "7 out of 10" or "12 out of 23 nodes".. does that mean that the chances are that the cancer has been caught in the nodes and not spread to anywhere else in the body through the nodes?

DCMom

jan-m-  I have numbness down my arm to just below the elbow.  I'm 2 1/2 years out from surgery and still have the numbness, but it's alright.  The surgeon said that she cut a bunch of nerves so the feeling wouldn't return, however if the nerves are messed with and left in tact you can have permanent pain so I am fond of the numbness on that count.  Some of the feeling may return, but you also get very used to the numbness so don't worry about it.

As far as the node count goes all of these staging factors are for the doctors to determine how to hit it.  Once you are NED (no evidence of disease) my nurse told me we are all equal and then it is just a crap shoot.  Don't get caught up with statistics.  I went to a luncheon with a group yesterday and someone commented that the statistics are either 100% it has returned or 0% it has not returned.  I'm planning on the 0% because what else is there to plan for?

Hope_M

Jan-m,

Glad to hear that you weathered the surgery okay!  The numbness may be permanent.  You should expect to have numbness on the surface of the area-formerly-known-as-your-breast, through the armpit and down the arm a bit.  I've gotten used to this and have had enough surgeries now to appreciate the freedom from pain that this kind of numbness can give you!

Hope you are still doing well,

Hope M.

jan-m

Thanks DCMom & Hope_M..I am starting to get some feeling back.. but as of so far, I can't really call it pain.. it's a weird feeling. I would rather have numbness than pain anyday.  I had my drains removed yesterday and didn't feel a thing Love your attitude DCMom.. I will plan on 0% also!

Thanks again, ladies!