My tumor is growing. How fast did your tumor grow?

hray1993

A little background. I'm 26. Just got diagnosed with IDC on Dec 19. It's grade 3 and triple negative. Not sure of stage yet. I found my lump on nov 23. Got an ultrasound on nov 27. Ended up going for biopsy on it dec 16 and they didanother ultrasound on it. On the nov 23 ultrasound it was 30 mm and on the dec 16 ultrasound it was 34 mm. I know everyone says different tests measure it differently but both of these were ultrasounds. Converting those to cm would be 3cm and 3.4 cm. So in 3 weeks it grew half a cm. I know it's fast growing. I don't see my breast care team until Jan 7 so that will have been 3 more weeks time since it was last measured. Can anyone tell me the size of their tumor at diagnosis and if it grew before any treatment and also what size it ended up being when they took it out. Thanks!

Oh and I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas!

Tmh0921

My tumor was as follows:

4/29/19 - Mammogram/ultrasound - tumor was 1.1 cm at its largest point

5/22/19 - Breast MRI - tumor was 1.9 cm at its largest point

8/5/19 - Mastectomy - IDC was 3.4 cm, also had a 2.4 cm DCIS component

My tumor is ER+/PR+ HER2- grade 3

My oncologist does NOT believe that my tumor almost doubled in size between imaging and surgery. She DOES believe it grew, but says that imaging can only give an estimation of size and that it doesn't “see" everything.

I also had two suspicious lymph nodes on both the ultrasound and breast MRI. Both had cortical thickening of at least 8mm, and both appeared to be missing their fatty hilum. Both of these findings were suspicious for malignancy in the lymph nodes. Final pathology on the nodes came back benign.

So, imaging is a tool but it's not 100% accurate.

Tracy

hray1993

Thank you so much for responding so I don’t feel crazy. I wonder if it’s the norm for your tumor to be bigger when they remove it than what it looks on scans. At what point did you get your Staging info? After removal

Beesie

Sometimes the tumor turns out to be exactly the size estimated by imaging, sometimes it's larger than it appeared in imaging, and sometimes it's smaller, particularly if a component of the tumor turns out to be DCIS. Each case if different and it can go any way.

Per my earlier post, Clinical Staging is prior to surgery and Pathological Staging is after surgery. Most people who are not having neoadjuvant chemo only get Pathological Staging, although sometimes in pre-surgery discussions the surgeon or MO might mention "preliminary staging", which would be the same as Clinical Staging.

hray1993

Thank you!

ScatteredEnergy

Hi. I also found my tumor on 11/23.

11/27 Ultrasound says it measures 3.3 x 1.9 x 2.8 cm

11/27 Mammogram says it measures 3.3 cm

Final report from the u/s and mammogram says it measures 3.5 cm

12/16 MRI says it measures 3.6 x 2.5 x 3.4 cm

hray1993

Scattered Energy, so yours is growing too! Maybe we should keep in touch since our timelines are close! It seems like yours is growing too. Have you had any treatment or do you know your plan yet?

windingshores

You can't be sure it is growing rapidly in the sense that the growth is visible on imaging. All cancers grow- that is a defining characteristic of cancer.

If it's grade 2 and triple negative, you won't have an Oncotype Dx test and will no doubt have chemo so the only question is whether chemo will be before or after surgery, and it is possible it will be before. That would help ascertain whether the chosen chemo regimen will work.

January 7 must seem like a long way away. I would call and see if there is a cancellation list or if you can get in earlier. It's worth trying. Not because it's growing but because waiting is so hard.

hray1993

it’s actually grade 3 not grade 2 and it’s triple negative. That’s what scares me about the growth knowing both those things. Jan 7 is the earliest day they do team meets is what they told me when they scheduled it. They don’t do them this week or next week because of the holidays. So I’m just stuck waiting it seems