Lymph Node Removal Questions

The radioactive stuff just shows the surgeon the path the lymph follows as it leaves the breast and goes into the nodes.  I think the blue dye does the same if you had that. I had both.  This is just the path, it does not mean that cancer cells are there.

In my case my surgeon removed 9 nodes.  She removed all the "hot" ones (the ones that lit up) and blue ones, and, since I had such tiny nodes, she removed some that were hidden away in fat without knowing they were even there.  Don't be worried.  Pathology will look at all of it and you should know soon. Good luck.

What I had was a few isolated tumor cells in 1 node, and in two nodes I had a few small clusters of cells.  One cluster added up to almost 1 mm; they call that one node a micrometastasis because it was the only one bigger than .2 mm.  Some would say that's not a positive node, but my pathologist said that it was evidence that cancer spread through my lymph system.  I would have had chemo regardless of the nodes because I had lots of tumor in my breast.  There wasn't just one tumor, there were lots of tumors spread around in the top of my breast, over an 8 cm area.  That meant that I needed a mastectomy and chemo.  My tumor was also pleomorphic lobular which may be a more aggressive cancer, so another good reason to have chemo.

It appears that you have only a small amount of tumor that is intermediate grade.  An oncotypeDX score would be helpful to you as you consider treatment choices.  Did you have an MRI?

Hope you are doing O.K. after two lumpectomies.