Question about chemo before surgery and staging

LovelyLeo

For those who have chemo before surgery, how is staging determined if chemo is suppose to zap out most of the cancer? How could you tell how many nodes were involved or how big the actual tumro was?

Traveltext

Good question. After surgery you can still get an idea of staging since the tumor is not always completely gone. This occurs when you don't achieve complete pathological response. Ask your breast surgeon about this. Generally your surgeon will remove all your lymph nodes if your biopsy or scan indicates one one or more is positive. The pathology afterwards will reveal extent of the lymph node cancer. In my case it was 2/23 positive.

NotVeryBrave

They used the initial scans (mammo, US, and MRI) for my staging. The lump was 2.7-2.8 cm. I had two lymph nodes that had a concerning appearance. One was biopsied negative and considered "discordant" by the radiologist.

At the time of surgery - no cancer was found in the final pathology in either the breast or the nodes.