Lymph node involvement

Laratee

Back here again looking for encouragement. I was diagnosed last week. I don't know the grade of my tumor and I didn't ask. It's invasive ductal carcinoma. It is 1.6 cm and there are 2 other questionable spots in the same breast (right), nothing in the left. I'm scheduled for a mastectomy with reconstruction next week. I will also need chemo, and am seeing an oncologist tomorrow.

My biggest worry is that I let this lump go for months and thought it was "just a lymph node". As it turns out, it was a tumor. It was when I noticed the swollen lymph node in my armpit that I freaked. It is also positive for cancer. That is my worry. Is it too late? Has is spread? I'm wondering if it's even possible that it's not gone anywhere else in my body.

I know I won't know the answer to this until I get a PET scan, I guess. But any encouragement regarding positive armpit lymph nodes not being a guarantee of metastasis........or about chemo being able to "zap" whatever is out there in my body.....would be great. I'm scared.

Tosca

Hi, Laratee. I had a waaaay bigger tumor than you and 12 positive nodes out of 29 at surgery, but my PET showed that nothing had gone beyond the armpit nodes. So it is definitely possible to have even many positive nodes without distant metastasis. I am sending you wishes for a good outcome!

7of9

Hi Laratee....10 nodes here (yuck) but all contained in the axillary pocket. Nothing on scans. Recurrence too. Had ALND, hysterectomy/ooph, radiation now 4 rounds of Taxotere. If you are ER + the antihormonals are our biggest alley. I recurred on Tamoxifen though apparently it kept it from spreading (?) I already did almost 2 months on Arimidex now they are having me stop for chemo, then will be back on 2 days after my last treatment. Surgeon says she got it all - do your therapy, you'll be FINE!

Laratee

Good to hear you are both doing well. Just the kind of encouragement I need.

LifeAloft

Hi Laratee,

I also had/have a positive node, at least one that I know of. I haven't had surgery yet, having chemo first. The positive node grew to 3cm and all of my scans were clear, it's not anywhere else. I know it's a scary time, I had pretty much convinced myself that if had spread, but it hadn't.

Try to stay positive (easier said than done), I wish you the best. Hugs.

LisaAlissa

I know you have surgery scheduled, but sometimes the oncologists want to do chemo before surgery (neoadjuvent chemo). Lots of reasons, but a couple of them are:

1. Shrink the tumor so less radical surgery is required.

2. Check to see if the chemo "works" on your tumor. If your tumor isn't responding they can change to a different chemo regime and see if that works. If you have chemo after surgery, you simply have to hope and have faith that the chemo selected works on your tumor (and any cells that are already circulating in your body).

Talk with your oncologist and see what s/he thinks.

Best wishes,

LisaAlissa

Maya15

Hi Laratee, so sorry about your diagnosis. I have several positive lymph nodes (as per biopsy). It's not only possible but most likely that it hasn't spread anywhere else even though it's in the nodes. I had also convinced myself the PET was going to be positive because every scan and biopsy I had kept finding more cancer. But it wasn't. No metastasis anywhere else. It's a good idea to see what your oncologist thinks. I'm also having chemo first, for the reasons LisaAlissa says, and also because it gets to work right away on any cells that might be circulating but haven't taken up residence elsewhere.

Also, don't beat yourself up about leaving it too long. One of my friends did nothing about a lump her gyn told her needed testing for over a year. She just didn't want to deal with the possible results. By the time she did, it was stage 3 with a huge lump and had gone to a whole bunch of axillary lymph nodes. She had the whole works (chemo/surgery/radiation,hormone treatment). That was in 2006. She's been totally fine ever since. No recurrence, no metastasis.