Lymph node inside breast???

Fairchild

I just got results of a biopsy, which showed that the 3rd "tumor" they have found on the same side as my IDC is a lymph node within my breast that is positive for cancer. My surgeon says she doesn't really know if this counts as "lymph node involvement" and she needs to change the stage of my cancer. However, I found a rather scary research study showing that it increases the odds that I will have lymph nodes on that side involved. Has anyone ever had this happen to them? Did it affect your health and/or treatment?

VL22

hi Fairchild - I had the same thing - it is called an intramammary node. My team did count it as node involvement. My sentinel nodes were negative, so the new protocol is not to do a Axillary node dissection.

I googled it and was so scared I didn’t sleep for days! But then I asked my MO about it and she said just treat it like a normal node - nothing worse. I searched every person on the this site who had it and all of them are alive and well. I even private messaged a few!

My cancer was very aggressive, thus the chemo. In your case I don’t know if it would warrant that - as my surgeon said, the cancer never left the breast. I’d ask your MO if chemo would be beneficial. Did you get your Oncotype score

Fairchild

VL22 Thanks so much for your post!!! The googling....same thing I did. Scary as hell!!!

What's an MO? Oncologist?

I haven't had surgery yet. They are running genetics, because I had a sarcoma when I was in my 20s and lost part of my hand to it. Will get Oncotype after surgery, I think? Also have bilateral cancer-- IFC in L breast and IDC on the R. Then they found this lymph node in the R breast, thinking it was another spot of breast cancer they missed in mammogram. But then found cancer in it. This is so confusing and frightening!!!

Fairchild

Also, I realized I didn't understand part of your post: "My team did count it as node involvement. My sentinel nodes were negative, so the new protocol is not to do a Axillary node dissection." I'm really new to this....Does this mean they didn't examine the axillary nodes? Thanks!

gb2115

If your sentinel nodes are negative (and even if positive a lot of the time) they don't do an axillary dissection meaning they don't take them all out. The sentinel node is part of the axillary nodes.

I would think a positive intramammary node would make you node positive for sure, bumping the stage up.

VL22

yes, an MO is an oncologist. gb2115 explained the nodes exactly - if the sentinel nodes are clear, usually just a couple taken out, then no need to take more.

It is so frightening, but you will start to feel better as you get a plan of attacking in place