Reoccuring Breast Cancer possible positive for Her2/nue

Sheila58

Hello everyone. I am reoccurrence of breast cancer after 10 years and bilateral mastectomy. Last year in 2016 I found a pea size lump under my arm. I went to the Doctor and he thought was a blocked sweat gland. I told him it needed to be check because of my history, Long story short a tumor was found and was positive for cancer. I had surgery and the surgeon found two nodes that in the axilla. He took them out and later I had 28 radiation treatments. My cancer is estrogen positive. Time went by I started having some deep pain in the left side where I had surgery. The oncologist said most likely from radiation. Long story short , I had another ultrasound and the findings showed the cancer was still there. The lymph nodes that were cancerous was thought to be all that needed to be removed by the surgeon. The Radiologist was mad. I had to have another surgery to have the tumor removed. The IHC tissue results came back : Estrogen positive 2-3+, 90% of tumor, Progesterone weekly positive and Her 2/neu positive 3+. First the oncologist set up chemo and mapped out the next two years of life for me. He sent the tissue off for yet another kind of test. 2 weeks later it came back Her 2/neu NEGATIVE.  I have one test negative and one test positive! Chemo was called off. I asked how do we know its negative? So another test was sent and three weeks later  , the lab said not enough tissue. The doctor is now sending the lymph nodes to be tested. They did not show anything other than Ductal carcinoma. I feel I am loosing a lot of time if this in fact is Her2/neu+.  Has anyone else had this situation ?Thank you

lkc

rhi

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hi Sheila, the Fishntest for her2 trumps the IHC. However , dince IHc showed 3 plus , your doc probably wanted another confirmation.

The other issue abiut not having enough tissue/cells to determine Her2 status is not that unusual. sending the lymph node tissue will be confirmatory.

hope that helps

Moderators

Hi Sheila,

We're sorry you are facing this recurrence and the fear that comes with it, but you've found the best place for support and advice.

You may want to post in the Just Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastasis forum in order to reach others who may have faced a similar situation. We're sure you'll gain lots of insight here!

We hope this helps and that we hear more from you soon!

--The Mods

marejo

Hi Sheila....Your story intrigued me because I am an almost 12 year her2neu 3+++/er/pr neg. survivor. I have been having some "deep" pain on the breast cancer side lately and I see you mentioned that as well. I have found no lumps but haven't went it. I'm wondering how you turned out