Stage 3A, T3N2M0. I'm not prepared for anything.

KKCharles

Hi there, I'm Charles and my aunt has just been diagnosed with a report that just pretty much sums up the word that no one in my family understands, not even me -- breast cancer.

My aunt didn't share much since I don't know if she knows much or willing to share, but she shared me the medical report and I use the luxury of internet to do as much research as I possibly could. I'm no doctor, but I'm hoping to know everything it is to it, as what I am reading terrifies me. I don't know if this is the right platform, I don't know anything, but I want to know. So here I am, I'm going to share everything in the report and my understanding (in italic). Currently, she will be scheduled for a scanning in two weeks time

Her details are: Female, 61 years old, non-smoker, unhealthy eater, unmarried and no child. Current condition is still healthy and makes no difference from any healthy individual.

Report

• Co-morbid illness: Hypertension.
• Presented with LEFT BREAST CARCINOMA
• The HPE shows 'infiltrating carcinoma', graded T3N2M0 (Stage IIIA)
  • I know this means that the metastasis is not there and as of now, it's not life threatening. However, the size of the tumour is rather large in comparison
• Left breast lump x 6/12. 5 x 10 cm in axillary LN, hard.
• HPE: Infiltrating Ca. T3N2M0 (Stage 3A). MMG 3.8 x 5.9 x 7m hypoechoic lesion in multiple axillary LN
• Planned for neoadjuvant theraphy
  • Just as what she said, she will undergo chemo to allow the tumour size to reduce before going to surgery to remove the tumour. So far, no information about the chemotherapy, no drugs prescribed that I know. This is the next step that I know.

Pathologist report

• Microscopic: Level shows all strips of tissues infiltrated by malignant cells. These lesional cells are arranged in sheets and clusters. They have hyperchromatic nuclei and ample cytoplasm. Mitotic figures with aberrant forms are present. There is no lymphovascular invasion seen.
  • I have no idea what I have typed but as far as I researched, the absence of lymphovascular invasion seemed like a good news as of now.
• Diagnosis: Biopsy of left breast lump : Infiltrating carcinoma
  • What is this? Is this bad? Can this go worse?

Mammogram report (? indicates doctor's handwriting which I could't understand)

• No suspicious lesion in the right breast
• Large irregular hypoc .... mass at the upper inner-outer quadum(??) corresponds to mass ser(?) ... and clinically palpable (3.8 x 5.9 x 7 cm). No dilated(?) ducts
• Impression: Suspicious left breast ca whn(?) infiltrated left axillary lymph node. No suspicious known in the right breast.
• BIRADS category: 5 (I know this is bad, very, very bad

I know it's a lot of ask for from forumers here. But I really don't know what to do now. It has been a very hard night for everyone in the family. I hope to learn whatever I should know, I need to expect and the risk that is coming to clear the doubt about her condition.

Primarily, I want to know;

1. Is the healing process going to be painful and long? How many cycles of chemo that she might have to undergo? I read articles saying that generally, 4-5 with 20 days or more in one rotation
2. What is the risk or probability of it getting worse? I know it has detected at such advanced stage and I want to know, realistically, how bad can it be in the short-to-long term?
3. If the option to get a full removal, mastectomy, rather than BCS, is the risk much lower and rather an easier recovery?
4. Is there a risk of survival chance? I read many articles indicating at this stage, the 5-year-life-expectancy (or something like this) is generally 47%. Is this right?

PS: If you would like to receive the copy of the report, feel free to PM me with your email.

Thanks so much in advance.

Additional notes:

Quite frankly, I'm sorry if I have offended anyone here as I expect replies like 'go check the FAQ or other topics before posting'. Yes, I'm currently reading a lot of topics and the FAQs and other forum to understand more. But still, the more I understand, the more I feel that this is, realistically speaking, not as good as I hoped it to be. There's too much uncertainty, and I don't deal well with uncertainty. Everything that I have painted doesn't seemed like a good picture.

Lily55

soundslike your Aunt has lobular cancer, as opposed to the more frequent ductal cancer. ILC Is often found later due to the way it grows. Recovery from mastectomy is surprisingly easy, the remval of lymph nodes is a lot more painful. Its a huge shock but I was diagnosed three years ago with ILC, very similar statistics to your Aunt, and I refused chemo and am still here.my advice is never make any decisions based on fear, take your time to consider the treatment plan, ask how much each treatment will affect prognosis then decide, as patients DO have choice.

Ignore stastics, they are always at least five years out of date by default!

Look after yourself too as its a shock and strain for you too

KKCharles

Thanks Lily!

I tried to be as rational as possible, I still am, but the uncertainty kills me.

I got home from work and I found that the hospital called her in urgent for some sorta test (I was having lunch break from work while I created this thread). I didn't ask, as every question I ask, I'm afraid that it hurts her. I still sob, remembering how she keep apologize for having this issue, hence, I only hear what she has to say.

I don't know much about what happened today, perhaps just a brief diagnosis since the real test is still scheduled at the 22nd (Mon). She was supposed to stay in the hospital overnight but she refused it because she's still walking and talking healthily. She spent the whole evening talking to my brother and our relatives about her condition. Yet however, she mentioned that she will go through a first round of chemotherapy tomorrow (in about 8 hours time from now) as the size of the tumour now is recommended to be treated as earlier as possible. She made it sound like it's a mild one and I don't know how it's going to be.

I can just helplessly pray and do all sorts of stupid stuff like trying to be an oncologist overnight to understand what is coming ahead, buying lemon to squeeze lemonade as it is said be to beneficial for her condition and buy her favourite dessert. I know it's hard for her too but she's just not showing it on her face, since well, it's pretty much our culture to 'keep the bads, show the goods'.

art15

Charles- your numbers show a rather large tumor, they will want to try chemo first, to shrink it, my wife is undergoing that now. The oncologist said it does not work to do surgery , then test the tissue for response to chemo in the petri dish, Scripps does not believe this works, as they believe the tumor needs to be getting the patient's blood supply to see the response, as this is their policy right now, but they do send out biopsies to a foremost breast expert if patients agree, to validate the pathology report.

My wife had ILC (Invasive lobular cancer) Stage 2B in her other breast 8 yrs ago, it is "sneeky" as it put out fingers and the margin is hard to determine for the surgeon, he had to do (2) lumpectomies as the margin was not clear the first time, and also, lobular cancer does NOT take-up glucose like other IDC in a PET scan, so it's basically only seen in an MRI (not mammo or ultrasound) by a good radio-tecnician, it's hard to see.