No lymphovascular invasion??

jeanette41

 My Aunt had a 0.8 cm IDC tumour. Another Aunt had a 1.4 cm IDC tumour.

Both had lymphovascular invasion identified.

I received my written pathology report yesterday (mastectomy and lymph node dissection). My tumour was 2.5 cm, and no lymphovascular invasion. Is this possible??  Did they miss something?? (Don't get me wrong...I'm very happy...just paranoid maybe??)

Fearless_One

No, it is probably right.   My aunt had a huge tumor - and no invasion, no lymph nodes.   Mine was only 1.97 and I had perinodal invasion!   So sometimes these things just seem to not make much sense.

IsThisForReal

Hi Jeanette and welcome.  Sorry we meet under these circumstances, but you'll find a wealth of information on these boards.

In my own experience, my pathology also showed no evidence of vasular invasion although I had 2 nodes involved.  One of those nodes actually measured 3 cm.  So, I'm banking on the report and praying the testing was thorough, accurate, and thanking  my 2 nodes for doing it's job.  

I'm sure other women will be along shortly and will reply to your post as well. :-)

DawnRenee

Jeanette.

There are so many different types of cancer & even IDC comes in different grades.

This just means; One woman's very tiny tumor could be more aggressive & spread, while a large tumor could be lazy & slow growing, less aggressive.

I had two tumors, grade 3, no positive nodes & my Onco score was a 5.

Each cancer is different, size doesn't determine aggressiveness.

Hope I explained that ok & it helps.

hrf

I had no lymphovascular invasion either even though I had 4 lymph nodes involved. I'm not sure that I understand what it means in terms of diagnosis or prognosis.

lago

I had no lympho vascular invasion, no node invasion but a very aggressive, HER2+, grade 3, 5.5cm (yes that is centimeters) tumor. Sometimes these things don't like to spread.

I think my surgeon was pretty happy but a little surprised that I didn't have any invasion in the nodes or LVI. I'm not complaining though. This was the most awesome news for me.

Shrek4

As dire as my diagnostic seemed, I didn't have vascular invasion either. I had an area of 4 cm of small tumors (the largest was 4 mm) and a positive SNB. But no vascular invasion. Yay for me.

katsOK

lFrom what I understand LVI is looked for on the biopsy pathology but not looked at in the biopsy of the whole tumor, there they look for node involvement.  So do not know if the report would mention LVI on the final pathology. mine didn't.  As with alot of the pathology report what they find is not always clear to the patient.

weety

I had LVI noted on my biopsy of the tumor, but when the mastectomy tissue was examined, no LVI was found.  (My tumor was 7mm)  The way my onc explained it, is that the entire tumor is never examined--just samplings of it, so if I had very small areas of LVI it might be missed when a pathologist sliced, stained, and examined samplings of the whole tumor.  She said it was also possible that the area of the biopsy was the only area that had LVI involvement.  Who knows.  I've gone over this a zillion times in my head.

That said, with a grade 1 tumor like you had, it is very possible that it was not aggressive and fast-growing enough to invade the vessels yet, even at that larger size. Mine was HER2+ which is known to be aggressive, even when tiny.

artteacher

Just like us, every breast cancer tumor seems to have a mind of it's own. I discovered mine in July...IDC with a grade 3 tumor of approx 3 cm.  I am flat chested so they decided to do chemo first and thought they knew exactly what would kill this cancer.  At my 3rd (out of 6) chemo treatment, about a month ago, I told my onco that I was sure my tumor was growing instead of shrinking, as they said it would.  To make a long story short, after another MRI, they discovered that I was right (sometimes it pays to be flat chested).  Ended up doing a unilateral mastectomy without reconstruction 10 days ago...NOT the original plan.  The fear was that since the tumor was now almost 5 cm and aggressive, it was sure to be in my nodes.  Pathology came back negative.  Hallelujah!  Needless to say, I was thrilled and so was the doctor...he called me at home with the news.

www.pattihatescancer.blogspot.com
Diagnosis: 7/27/2010, IDC, 4cm, Stage IIb, Grade 3, 0/3 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-

jeanette41

They weren't able to tell me much from my biopsy sample...only one sentence...invasive adenocarcinoma with a focal cribiform pattern. So I'm assuming the "no lymphovascular invasion indentified" came from final pathology of the tumour. Considering the mass was spiculated with spidery edges, maybe it took the path of least resistance?? I'm not sure...

Other than the tumour size, I'm happy with my pathology report...just still very nervous about what the future holds. From what I've read, Breast Cancer can be so darn sneaky.

Geesh Artteacher, I am so happy for your good report ....but that must have been a very scary time for you...to feel it growing instead of shrinking. Even though mastectomy is hard, I bet you were relieved when your surgery date was booked! I know I was.

YummyMummy03

Hi, I have just been diagnosed with IDC with a tumour 2cms. My path lab report also says no lymphovascular invasion,  how can they tell by just doing a biopsy of my tumour?  I am worried that this will ,or has, spead to my lymph nodes before my surgery which I am hoping will be next week. Although teh ultraaasound report mentions the largest lymph node measures 13mmx10mm,  is this good or not-so good??? please can someone out there help me?