How could a lump have cancerous and noncancerous parts?

kaylynn

Stacey are you a redhead be chance? I have heard something about if you are that lidocaine doesn't like to work.

Thanks summer that helps a lot,maybe I wont lose much vacation time at work then.

Sanduchi

Hey ladies,

Looks like I missed a lot since my last post! I'm at work so I can't respond individually but just wanted to say, I go in for my surgery tomorrow. I'm not nervous, except about the medical bills to follow. Ha ha. We have one of those horrible high deductible health plans so I'm nearly waving goodbye to my savings. Boo.

I will let you all know how it turns out.

kaylynn

I have one of those deductible to which is why I waited from Nov 30 to Jan 4th to have the mammogram/US done.It sucks.Good luck My surgery is Monday.Let me know how it goes.

StaceySue2U

Karlierie I dyed my hair red for years. That must be the problem

Good luck on your surgery, Sanduchi!

My Dr. just called and said that they found cancer. My markers aren't back yet but she said it's grade 2. I'm going in tomorrow to learn more.

SummerAngel

I'm sorry, StaceySue. We're here for you!

StaceySue2U

Thanks SummerAngel.

InStitches

If the radiology findings don't match up with what is detected in the core needle biopsy then the pathologist and radiologist meet and report that it is discordant. That happened to me last year and my excisional biopsy ended up being a lumpectomy with DCIS and LCIS. I am glad I had it removed. I am now going through the exact same thing six months after my MRI in July. Only this time it is in the contra lateral breast. The BS called Friday morning and said the pathology came back as "scar tissue." I am waiting for the determination of whether it is considered concord ant or discordant. I will be telling my BS that I want this removed as soon as possible.

The stats of the effectiveness of core needle biopsies are really good but my personal experience with them has not been great. When the radiologist and I discussed the need for. Biopsy I asked him why we didn't go straight to an excisional biopsy and his answer was very interesting. He said the core needle biopsies place a clip that then helps the BS is planning for the excisional biopsy. In my most recent. Experience from last week I had two core needle biopsies, not fun at all! I really expected the radiologist to say that we don't like to put people through a more complicated surgery requiring anesthesia if wasn't absolutely necessary. In my case I also think the radiologist suspects a malignancy and I hope he will pursuede the pathologist and BS that an excisional biopsy is needed

kaylynn

Oh no Stacey,i am sorry you go that news.I wonder if like you thought they found it on the outside of the mass?

kaylynn

Sanduchi,hope your surgery went well!

Sanduchi

Stacey, so sorry to hear your news. My thoughts are with you!

Surgery went well on Friday. No major issues or pain so far (nothing that these nice little pain pills don't fix!). Tried to only use ibuprofen today but I had to go back to the strong stuff. The lifesaver for me has been wearing my "around the house" bra. No cups or wire, just soft and helps keep things in place. I haven't taken it off!! It's so helpful.

Results in a few days. Surgeon isn't too concerned that it will be anything more than atypia. I will keep you posted. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers

kaylynn

I had my surgery today at 2:15 it took about an hour. I cant see the incision so dont know how big it is because of the large water proof bandage. The dr did talk to me before surgery. They are still confused what it is and that a papilloma doesnt form that far back but the biopsies showed b9. She did discuss that there could be cancer that wasnt found on biopsy.she also said the biopsy showed them it had to be removed. So it is a guessing game what is growing. I will know more maybe thursday. Not in much pain. I did just take 2 regular tylenol. I didnt get the narco prescription filled. The pain is far back along the chest wall. 

StaceySue2U

I hope you don't mind, Karlyrie, but I sent up a prayer for you that your tumor is benign. I hope you sleep well, remain comfortable, and get good results

kaylynn

Thank you so much! Hope you are doing well and finding peace and great fight status to beat this disease. I am an 11 year cancer survivor. So have faith!

StaceySue2U

Thanks. I'm not feeling good about it at all today but I guess we have good days and bad days? Is it rude to ask how bad yours was and what kind of treatments have you had?

kaylynn

I have a hard time with faith of having things removed from my body for just in case. First two times cancer was found with each total biopsy. This is number 3 of just in case. My body likes cancer,and i hate it. All my females body parts try to kill me. Wtf. Lol men are so lucky. 

StaceySue2U

I've decided to completely remove both breasts "just in case." Might as well get it over with in one fell swoop!

kaylynn

Ok so i thought the surgery would be a piece of cake with no pain. Oops today the pain is alot worse. I am still pretty weak. Riding in a car hurts like hell,,i guess the dd cup bounces to much.yes i have a support bra on 24 hrs a day. I didnt fill the pain med prescription just using tylenol. It is manageable but if you let the pain set in it takes a bit to get it under control. My mass was way back against the chest wall so the pain maybe be worse due to the depth. I thought i would be able to go to work by Wednesday but not going. I never got to sleep until 2:30am and was up early. Even took xanax. Hoping tonite is better but with the pain i think i will wake me up alot. Hope you all are doing well..

treelilac

I just want to say that not only can there be 2 types of cells (cancer and non-cancer) in the same lump, there can be different receptor staining (ER/PR) too. My first biopsy indicated triple negative (ER/PR/HER2-) and second biopsy said ER/PR+ with the cancer cells. Because the treatment plans would have been quite different, you can see how confused I was. I understood receptor staining was about percentage anyway (e.g.30% cells [I made the number up] counted by the pathologist were stained positive, it is considered ER+) but how could one spot was more densely clustered with receptor positive cells than the other? When I consulted my second-opinion MO, she explained that a situation can happen like a pepperoni pizza where the pepperoni represent triple negative cells and the rest of the pizza is akin to the rest of the tumor that has receptor positive cells. If the pathologist sampled the pepperoni (triple negative), he/she would have drawn that conclusion. Same decision making process happens with the non-pepperoni portion.

Honestly I still think it doesn't make sense: why within a primary, the cancer cells are heterogeneous. But I want to offer this weird experience of mine. Maybe people have better explanation.

StaceySue2U

Was it a very big mass, Karlyrie? Sorry to hear you're having so much pain. Take it esy and get better soon. I hope your results come back good.

treelilac that's downright scary. How can we get the right treatments, then? Ugh.

Sanduchi

Hey all,

Just wanted to update--Results are B9!! So glad to be done with this little lump.

Prayers and thoughts for the rest of you still waiting on results or facing treatments.

StaceySue2U

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Time to celebrate

StaceySue2U

Thank you, Kayb. That's very informative - and very scary.

kaylynn

Stacey my mass wasnt large,about 7mm. Not sure how much more she took to be on the safe side. It was real deep so probably the reason for pain. The pain is better today. I finally got some sleep last night. Still dont feel able to drive. Using that arm for much is hard. Stupid boobs,who knew they could be so much trouble.