Lymphovascular involement

kerrie389

Hi,

Was wondering if anyone has read this on their pathology report. Lymphovascular involement in breast tissue removed.

I had a 1.5cm IDC grade 2 stage 2 ... 2 lymph nodes involved. 

I have been told that it is the lymph node status that is the important thing but i don"t understand what this means and it is making me very nervous.

Kerrie 

raincitygirl

I am not 100% sure, but it sounds to me like they are saying they got it with clean margins...hope that is the case.  I hope the surgeon's nurse can go over this with you immediately on the phone!

Leah_S

Lymphovascular involvement means there is evidence that the cancer has entered the lymph and/or blood system. Since you had 2 nodes involved it doesn't make a difference to your treatment or prognosis. The nodal status already told you that it entered the lymph system.

Leah

hopeful34

I had no node involvement, but I had LVI.  I spoke to my oncologist about this and he said it increases my chance of recurrence by approx. 10%.  That being said, he also told me the chemo treatment that I am having will not change because of this diagnosis. The onc. also explained to me that it means it has traveled through your blood stream and your it either gets caught by your lymph nodes or could by-pass them completely, or it just hasn't made it that far.  In your case, it sounds like your lymph nodes did there job and caught the cells before they traveled any further.  I have googled it as well and the most recent article I read, said that for years they thought LVI had a poor prognosis in early stage bc, but they have recently found that in a study of 15,000 women that the overall survival rates were the same regardless of LVI.  I don't know if that helps, but that is about all I could find out.  In general, it seems it is not near as bad as it sounds, so try not to worry yourself too much about it.  Good luck to you and take care.  Allison

kerrie389

Hi ladies... thank you so much for your replies.

Allison that information certainly did help and made me feel so much better.

I'm seeing my oncologist today and will ask her more about it... just need to get my head around it so i can move on.

Thanks again ladies

Kerrie 

kerrie389

Just saw my oncologist today and asked her about the LVI on my path report.

She said it is used to determine treatment but is not considered when they give survival rates.

She said the node status was the important thing.

Still wish i didnt have it but she did put my mind at ease.

Kerrie 

kittycat

I had LVI but no node involvement (I'm Stage 1).  It was one of the reasons they put me on an aggressive chemo plan (along with being triple negative and have grade 3 bc). 

Luah

When my BS was going over my pathology, she treated the LVI finding as pretty unremarkable.  She said as I had some cancer cells in 2 nodes, "you would of course expect LVI."   

connierf

I have bilateral tumors, but LVI only on one side.  The left is 1.2cm, stage 1c, grade 4, with one positive node with micromets.  My oncologist rec'd further lymph node surgery and chemo, but I got a second opinion from Dana Farber.  They rec'd NO chemo (ER+,PR+) because I'll be taking an aromatase inhibitor.  They did not feel that further lymph node surgery was neccessary.  Does anyone else have micromets and NOT have any further lymph node removal?

BarbaraA

Connie, I had one of 4 nodes with micromets and my surgeon, onc and rad onc felt that rads would handle any stray cells floating around. I had an Oncotype score of 17 and did not do chemo.

Luah

Connierf:  Follow-up for micromets in nodes is a very hot topic right now among physicians and researchers: surgery versus radiation? Which is best? While ALND has been standard of care, the trend seems to be moving away form that.

There have been a few threads on this in the past year (I know I started one) and you may want to do a search to find all that discussion.  

FWIW, I decided to do the ALND after much research and multiple discussions with my surgeon, oncologist and rad oncologist.  For me, I needed to know the cancer was out (or not there in the first place), which you can never know for sure with rads or chemo.  I was also able to avoid radiation to the superclavicular region as a result of negative findings.