Clinically Node Negative -- Neo-adjuvant Chemotherapy

sduch1

Does anyone know the significance of being clinically node negative? They were unable to detect anything in my lymph nodes in the CT scan and Breast MRI that I had done as part of diagnosis. I am currently undergoing neo-adjuvant chemotherapy/herceptin and I am almost done which means that I will be scheduling my surgery next. I am worried about lymph node involvement.

rozem

hi

 clinically node negative means that they could not see any evidence of cancer in any imaging.  This does not mean that your nodes are absolutely clear, there could be microscopic cells- unfortunately if they did not do a sentinal node biopsy before you started chemo and your nodes are clean after chemo you will never know

i was clinically node negative and did not have a snb before chemo - after chemo my nodes tested completely clear (and my tumor was gone aswell) still bugs me to this day that i don't know if they were positive to begin with but my onc insists that the nodes being clear after neo adjuvant is what they want to see