Supraclavicular and Internal mammary lymph nodal metastases

mom2LA

Hello everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone had supraclavicular and Internal mammary lymph nodal metastases. What treatment did you have? Are these curable? Did the nodes go away after the treatment?

I've done 6 rounds of TCHP treatment last year, and recently PET scan shows I have 1 node on supraclavicular and 2 on Internal mammary lymph nodes.

I can't believe I have to go thru all of these treatment again. The treatment this time will be weekly Taxol, Herceptin and Perjeta for 12 treatments.

LoriCA

Hi mom2LA, did you have them biopsied or is your doctor just relying on the PET scan results?

I currently have supraclavicular, mediastinal, periaortic, retroperitoneal, and mesentery nodes lighting up on my PET scan. It's important to understand that a PET scan shows metabolic activity, and that doesn't always mean cancer in the nodes. My MO wants to take a wait and see approach (I'm still on Herceptin and Perjeta) because he strongly believes that it's just my body fighting the cancer. The only way to know for sure is with a biopsy. I was skeptical at first but I did some research and found several oncologists discussing the fact that it's not uncommon for lymph nodes to show metabolic activity on a PET scan after treatment, and that less than 50% show cancer when biopsied. They said that oncologists too often jump straight to chemo that isn't required. I certainly wouldn't want to undergo more harsh treatment without a biopsy, especially if you are early stage. It's one thing for me, I'm Stage IV and will be in treatment for the rest of my life so I'm resigned to it, but even my MO says he won't put me on more chemo right now unless we verify that the nodes are cancerous and not just metabolically active for another reason.