2 Negative Biopsies But Onc Believes It's Mets :(

GoldenGirls

After a negative lymph node biopsy and a negative bone biopsy, we finally met with my mom's onc face-to-face and he believes she has bone mets based on the scans even after 2 negative biopsies. Fuck! Yes, I said "FUCK"!! Grrr!

He is sending her for another CT scan in the next week or two to check for any change in the lesions and for other areas of concern that might have been missed and is also having the lymph node biopsied again and said that based on what they find they will proceed from there. I asked him what treatment would be and he said that since so far it looks like it's only in the bones, they would try hormonals and radiation to the clavicle since that is the only area that is causing her pain and that chemo, since it would "be forever" will be considered only if there is progression or organ involvment, but that we will see once the test results are in since we still don't know for certain what's going on. I thought that biopsy results were the way to confirm cancer and thought it was a pretty good bet that it wasn't cancer after 2 negative biopsies!

I'm heartbroken, obviously, and frustrated at how long this has taken and how there is still no definitive answer or plan in motion -- especially since I worry that by the time we get through more tests and waiting it will have progressed! The bone lesions were first seen 7 weeks ago! Now with another 3 or 4 of waiting it just seems like an awfully long time to start treating it and an awfully long time for someone to tell us "yes, we are sure it's cancer"...or "no it's not cancer", which would be fantastic, though not likely.

How often to false negative biopsies happen??? So frustrating!