negative nodes ending up with Mets - numbers?

I had 9 nodes taken from the bc side, they identified them at different levels.  I had one taken out of the non-bc side.  I just asked my onc about the draining somewhere other than the axilla route, and he said no, and if for some reason it did the nuclear medicine would pick it up.  I had both, the dye and the nuclear.  All were clear, I have slight LE on the cancer side because (I think) the nurses in the hospital used THAT arm for bc since I had an IV in the other.  For my exchange the IV went into my hand on the non-bc side, and bp was taken there.  PT really helped with LE.

Karen

Hey gals,

I've had a mx and recon July 10th.  I had a recent serious bout of bronchitis.  After two weeks of antibiotic I started to have chest pain.  I had just started tamoxifen 5 days earlier so my PCP ordered a CT scan to check for pulimonary emboli.  Well, no pneumonia or emboli showed up but a 3mm granuloma did.  So, Sydney6 it looks like we are in the same boat.  My mx pathology came back with 5 previously undetected tumors/2 were invasive.  All were small.  I had a total of 8 tumors in the right breast.  This granuloma is freaking me out.  Oh, the chest pain - consensus is it was muscular inflammation due to the trauma of surgery followed by the irritation of bronchitis.  Pretty innocuous and resolved with ibuprofen, but WHOA the diagnostics picking up another thing to watch is scary/grateful coincidence.

Jude

Thanks Sue.  Yes the CT report recommended a follow-up in 6 months.  I emailed my onco yesterday but have not heard back yet.  My CT discussion was with my GP.  What is the CYP2D6 test?

Jude

O.K. so I'm kind of freaking out tonight.  Went today for my first transvaginal ultrasound - I've been on the tamoxifen for 4 1/2 months now.  And I went last Friday for blood work - tumor markers & CYP2D6 test and Wednesday for a CT of my lung.  I resisted the urge to get a copy of my CT report today and decided to wait for my appointment with the oncologist on Tuesday the 22nd thinking if it was bad I didn't want to know, but of course my mind keeps traveling to the dark side.  I think if this itching thing would go away I could move on with my life somewhat, but it makes me believe the cancer is in my system.  After the ultrasound when I was getting dressed of course I was looking at the screen trying to determine what I was looking out at and I immediately came home and searched it on the internet.  I think I just need Tuesday to come so I can get some answers.  Thanks for letting me vent.

Sue

Yikes....I must admit this thread has scared the heck out of me. Just fought with my husband about it.  Gulp.

PS I had osteoporosis in my thirities so it never hurts to check. There are a number of risk factors.

I have this hope, chemo is becoming a treatment of the past, that the new drugs will be able to take over. 

I know I have invasive, adnocarcinoma, is that different than what you all are talking about?

I feel exactly the same. SO SCARED.

I am not trying to be difficult or harsh but I think that some of you are missing the point on the Oncotype.  If you have low scores on the Oncotype it also means that chemo will not help. We all would want chemo if it would help.  For those with slow growing tumors usually low Oncotype, chemo doesn't work as it does with the faster growing tumors.

But these points aren't applicable to everyone that posted on here; in particular I posted because of Suzi, whom I know already.  I can't see that the commonality of people are turned down for chemo if they have mircomets.

Hpowever, the esiest thing for me to do is just not post.

cancerfacts is a good deal more helpful than adjuvant and that's why I posted the link here, so that those that could find it helpful in their micromets reseasrch could have a good resourse to hand.

I give up.

I agree I enjoy reading everyone's posts especially Virginia.  Beautifully said, the goal isn't agreement but it is to share different information.

Jude and Sydney, did they say it was a calcified granuloma? Those are normally harmless. They are formed around scar tissue sometimes due to a prior infection.

A couple of decades ago, I had pneumonia and the X-ray after it was gone still showed something. A follow-up CT said it was a calcium nodule (i.e. a calcified granuloma). They did another X-ray 6 months latter followed by yearly X-rays a couple of times just to make absolutely sure that it wasn't a problem. 

During my chemo last November, I was in the ER due to a neutropenic fever and they did an X-ray to check for infection. There was a shadow on that one. They again did a CT scan and the radiologist said it was a calcified granuloma. I've had the 6 months follow-up X-ray and it is fine. I'll have one more in a year.

In between the two times, I had an X-ray where they couldn't find it and the old X-rays aren't available so I don't know if this is the same one and was missed on the in-between X-ray or if the old one went away and I later got a new one but either way, I'm not worried about it.

In addition to the calcification, my understanding is that they look at the shape - a rounded solitary calcified nodule tends to indicate that it is harmless.

am I outta here!

Sydney, I guess the granuloma going away sounds like good news. I hope your test in 12 months goes well.

Uncertainty is tough. At the time that I got the call back for my mammogram, I had just had an endometrial biposy (56 with no period for a year and then I had one so they had to check on the unexplained bleeding) and was waiting for the result. That one was negative but of course the biopsy after the mammogram and ultrasound wasn't which brought me here.

Anna, I don't understand your comment.

Virginia, I found cancerfacts.com interesting but a little frustrating. For some reason, it's sort of test results after I've entered in my facts brings up ones that aren't relevant to me like studies on hormone positive even though I've entered that I'm hormone negative. Still, with the patients to sort through that, it does bring up some interesting material. People like lifemath and adjuvantonline because they produce some numbers. Being HER2+, I find adjuvantonline pretty meaningless because it doesn't let you enter HER2+ status. Lifemath does but it only gives survival, not recurrence.  I can understand that they don't do predictions for Herceptin because it hasn't been around long enough for them to have 10 or 15 years of data on its impact. Searching out study results has been the most helpful in making my decisions but it is time consuming.

Barbe, notthing but surgery and 2 postive nodes - that doesn't sound right. The NCCN guidelines do say that if the tumor was between 0.5 and 1 cm, grade was low and everything else was favorable except there were micromets in the nodes, then consider hormone therapy. For any tumor above 1 cm it says hormone therapy and maybe chemo depending on Oncotype results or whether there was something in the nodes greater than 2mm. 

Hi Barbe1958,

I share your anxiety over no chemo.  Very  mixed feelings: so glad to not have to do it and scared to death that I am not doing every thing I should.  I did have the oncotype DX which came back at 27... high intermediate.  But the report PLAINLY stated that I would not benefit from chemo.  My three  doctors all concurred.  It's been hard for me to grasp why chemo would not reduce my risk of mets.  I did have some LVI which worries me as much as micromets would.  It seems to have something to do with my low mitotic rate and my advanced age, 62, and high ER+ number, 99%.  So  my doctors are all on the hormonal therapy bandwagon (Arimidex since I am post-menopausal) and feel that it will give me the safety net I am looking for.

You are ER+.  Is Tamoxifen effective for papillary carcinoma?  Or not?  Is that a possibility for you?  Or an Aromatase Inhibitor if you are post menopausal.   Are you able to talk comfortably with your doctor so he knows how anxious you are and maybe can explain your treatment plan and make you feel better?

This is so hard to go through, not knowing if you are doing the right thing,  But you have been so brave and pro-active already.  You are going to do great!

Hugs,

Pam 

barbe, if you push for zometa you can get it. You don't have to accept the answer of "no". Is there any way you can see the med onc on a regular basis and not just the surgeon?

Pam, you make me feel better. I, too, had looked up my cancer when first diagnosed, and knew I had a good prognosis with the double mast which is why I did it. I wasn't too concerned about mets until looking further into breast cancer. As I've had promblems with my left hip and my bone scan lit up (I had to ask for bone scan and mri) and it was supposed to be mri'd (which I didn't know!) and now they aren't correlated....I don't know!

hrf, is Zometa covered by OHIP?