Lymphatic Vessel Invasion

Greenfields

Greetings,

I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Stage 11b this January & as a result started neoadjuvant chemotherapy (8 in total, once every 2 weeks); then a lumpectomy & 20 lymphnode removal; followed by 25 sessions of radiation. My surgical pathology report indicated that of the 20 lymph nodes removed - 6 tested positive. It also indicated that I was LVI positive, meaning that the cancer had infiltrated my lymph vessels. I'm rather concerned because when I spoke to my medical oncologist about my report and asked her if the surgeon would have removed all those positive lymph vessels - she indicated that he most likely didn't. So of course I'm thinking the cancer is definitely still in my. Does anyone have any experience with being LVI positive?

kerrie389

Hi,

I too had LVI which i was extremely worried about and still am a bit i guess.

I asked my oncologist about it and she told me it is not used to determine statistics.

There is also a study ... look up study LVI breast cancer... that says it does not determine a poor outcome.

Hope this helps

Kerrie 

Greenfields

Thank you Kerrie  - unfortunately my onc said that it is not a great prognostic factor - but I think that in your case having only 2 positive nodes it is much more hopefull. 

kerrie389

Hi Greenfields,

Thought you might like to read this...

 http://breastcancerbydrruddy.com/2009/05/14/unexpected-good-news-lymphovascular-invasion-does-not-pose-a-worse-prognosis-for-breast-cancer-patients-whose-other-markers-are-low-risk-for-recurrence/

It certainly made me feel a lot better and supported the information my doctors had given me.

Kerrie 

Greenfields

Thank you Kerrie - I have read the article you recommended. I'd be interested to see what the other markers are. I must do more investigation. Also thank you for leading me to that website - I'm going out now but will check it out later today.

Thanks & again & hope things are going well with you.