Oncotype testing without a primary

zayb

I had posted some questions about chemo yesterday and it's effectiveness on hormone positive BC. I didn't get many responses, and I decided to go ahead with chemo which I am doing now.

During my discussion this morning before chemo, I asked some questions. One of the things I learned was that oncotype testing is very unreliable for those whose cancer is only in the node in the absence of a primary ( I had one positive node with no primary/local and had already had a mastectomy five years previously). The oncologist said that tumors in the node are infiltrated with lymphocytes which drive up the score. I thought this was interesting. They tried running the test on a node only cancer and got a ridiculously high score given the type of cancer. The infiltration of the tumor by lymphocytes also makes grading difficult.