Pissed off and worried

Raysal

so before surgery my BS made me do an ultrasound mammogram, MRI, CT and bone scan to make sure that there were no mets. All imaging indicated a tumor of 1.5cm.

I had my surgery and lo and behold my tumor size is 3cm and 3.5cm if you consider surrounding dcis. Ended up with two margins not being clear enough and getting a re excision. How is it possible that this was all missed? My snb came back clear but now I'm freaking out what if my cancer spread elsewhere or to other nodes that have been missed in imaging.

How is it possible for imaging to be so wrong? What if something else was missed?

ElaineTherese

Scans aren't necessarily accurate about the size of tumors, but yours did indicate where your cancer was located. Your scans did not indicate cancer elsewhere, so I'd take that as a positive. My MRI indicated a bigger tumor than my ultrasound; it was what it was. I'll never know (for sure) how big that sucker really was because I had chemo before surgery, and it was all gone after chemo.

((Hugs)) It's never fun to be unpleasantly surprised.

JoE777

Breast cancer is like a ghost. It's the nature of the disease

farmerlucy

It sucks and it causes a person to wonder about whatever results they get. I’ve learned that medicine is as much art as science. Where I can I try to get independent results like pathology and the oncotypedx, and also get full copies of all reports. I’ve called up my pathology dept and also questioned other professionals online. I’ve found that often one answer begets another question.

Right now BC radio is blaring in your head 24/7. It won’t always be that way. Stick with us here. It can be scary at times but the wealth of info you can gather here is invaluable. Best wishes and gentle hugs to you.

AliceBastable

I understand that all pre-surgery tests are just an estimate on size of tumor. They are meant to determine location and type more than size.