Pathology after neoadjunct chemo

Walden1

I did chemo before surgery and my pathology report shows chemo effect, but some residual IDC with Remaining Dcis. Hoping someone out there can shed some light on one statement in the report. It says “there is significant retraction artifact, but no obvious lymphovascular invasion". My Oncologist says “this is a good finding: retraction artifact means the IDC shrank and pulled away from the surrounding tissue". Wondering if anyone else had this in their report and how their oncologist explained it. I'm not sure if it means some cancer cells died so the tumor shrank, or IDC cells where simply damaged and shrunk down.

Looking for reassurance that some of the IDC cells where killed, as opposed to simply damaged. My pathology report alsosays the “ tumor shows treatment effect" Does effect mean cancer cells were damaged or actually killed? If there are damaged cancer cells floating around will they repair themselves and become a threat, or are they damaged enough not to be a threat? Anyone else with this in their pathology report get clarification from their oncologist?

Moderators

Hi Walden -- we'd suggest you also post your message in the chemo forum, as there is likely others there who have knowledge on this subject.

We hope this helps!

--The Mods

Egads007

Walden - my BS told me the tumour had shrunk (from 7 to 4)and showed it was surrounded by necrosis (death...yay) I’m not sure if this is the same as yours but I think you should ask to be sure. Congrats on ‘significant retraction’ looks as if chemo did it’s job for you!