Dumb question about scans & possible mets

TulipsAndDaffodils

Hi,

It is almost 1 year since my TNBC diagnosis (2.2 cm, grade 3, node negative, with LVI, residual .8 cm tumor after neoadjuvant chemo. Then lumpectomy with clear margins followed by 33 radiation treatments). I'm currently on adjuvant Xeloda treatment for 6 months because of my residual cancer (hoping this helps prevent recurrence given my high risk).

Meanwhile, when I was initially diagnosed last April, I never had a PET scan, bone scan, or any sort of full-body scan. I think because my nodes were negative and my tumor marker low, etc, my oncologist didn't see a need. Fine, I guess. But in the back of my mind, I always kind of wished I had the scans and therefore hopefully the knowledge that at least at that point, it hadn't metastasized. So I know that it could metastasize at any point--perhaps even just today if I went for a scan it would light up. But I'm wondering about something: if I had actually already metastasized last April, I would know by now, right? Even without a scan, if I had already been Stage 4 last April, within a year, symptoms would have developed and I'd be really sick, since TNBC is so aggressive, right? So at this point, it's silly for me to still be annoyed that I didn't have that kind of scan, because obviously I was not Stage 4 back then, right? Or not right?

I'm not sure if my question even makes sense, but thanks for TRYING to understand what I'm asking anyway ;-).

This has been bugging me, but I have too many more important questions to ask my MO, so I don't want to waste one of my questions on something that I'm merely curious about.

Have a great day!

Tulips

4everStrong

Hi there. .

Did you have a scan at the end of treatment?

Anyways my onclogist told me that chemotherapy accesses all sites so if xeloda finished off the job in the original site it would have attacked all cells even if they were travelling around.. but as we all know the problem remains when cancer returns.

Good Luck .. still learning the subject myself. Not an expert. . But you have my prayers and support

Amanda10

Hi

I'm so glad I'm not the only one wondering about this. I had a large tumour and one positive node . After treatment I also had residual cancer left.

I have never had a full body scan and wondered why, I'm from UK. How do they know if the cancer has not spread if it has not been investigated ?

Love Amanda xx

Valstim52

I had PET, CT scan right before chemo. Dr says will have scans again after radiation. So at least I know at the beginning there were no mets detected.

TulipsAndDaffodils

Thanks, ladies!

Right, unfortunately for me, the first batch of chemo did not work completely. I had AC-T chemo before my surgery, and then at the time of my lumpectomy surgery, it turned out there was still some residual tumor left. The people who still have residual tumor at that point are at higher risk of developing metastases, because if the chemo didn't knock out all of the primary tumor, it's less likely to have knocked out all of the rogue traveling cancer cells, if there were any. Hopefully there weren't any rogue cells to begin with, so the ineffectiveness of AC-T could be a moot point (fingers crossed!!!!). Certainly lots of people with residual tumors survive, but it is a riskier situation. That's why I'm having more chemo now, after surgery, of a different type--in the hopes that if I have rogue cells, maybe they'll respond better to Xeloda than they did to AC-T.

I didn't have a scan at the end of treatment. I did have an MRI mid-way through my neoadjuvant chemo (after the Taxol and before the AC). This MRI said that I had NO cancer left, so I was ecstatic, thinking I was heading to a pCR. I merrily went on to the AC portion of my chemo, thinking it was just bonus/insurance. So imagine my surprise when the surgery pathology came back with viable cancer remaining. I'll never trust an MRI again. But I have never had a full body scan, a PET scan, or a bone scan.

Amanda, I'm sorry you are in the same boat in terms of residual cancer, although I remain very, very optimistic for us both! Isn't it annoying to have not had scans? I do mostly understand why the current practice here (is this true in the UK?) is to not have follow-up scans unless you have symptoms, since they insist that discovering metastasis earlier doesn't improve survival (although I'm a little skeptical if that's true, but for sure all oncologists seem to say that). But I just wanted to have baseline scans in the beginning. But the more time passes, I think I am getting over it, because I figure I would know by now if I had been Stage 4 back in April 2015, right? I would like to get past being annoyed that I didn't have scans last year ;-). Thanks for humoring my craziness!!

Tulips

PS That's great, Vals!