Tumor Size

I have a friend who had an 8cm tumor.  She had a lumpectomy two years ago, chemo, radiation and is doing well,  Good luck with your treatment. 

Jbug - it's a different grade scale in Canada.

Hoping for the best for you in your upcoming biopsy.

Hi J-Bug,

There are quite a few of us here with large tumors, as Arlene said.  I was 43 and found the lump before my first mammo (yes, I should have had it at 40). Mine was 9.7 cm x 9.4, the size of a tangerine (can you tell II work with citrus?). Mine was grade 2 (score was 7). I only got one grade on my pathology report. The tumor grade is given by the Nottingham score. I found an explanation that is pretty good:

Within the last decade, histologic grading has become widely accepted as a powerful indicator of prognosis in breast cancer. The majority of tumor grading systems currently employed for breast cancer combine nuclear grade, tubule formation and mitotic rate. In general, each element is given a score of 1 to 3 (1 being the best and 3 the worst) and the score of all three components are added together to give the "grade". The lowest possible score (1+1+1=3) is given to well differentiated tumors that all form tubules and have a low mitotic rate (<10/10 HPF). The highest possible score is 9 (3+3+3=9). The exact criteria for each component differ in each system and the systems are evolving as more detailed data becomes available. Some studies even suggest that mitotic rate alone can be as predictive as the grading systems.

A histologic grade of III is assigned to any patient with a Nottingham score of 8 or 9. Grade I refers to Nottingham scores of 3, 4, and 5, while Grade II refers to Nottingham scores of 6 and 7.

I had a similar experience with a fast growing tumor. I could feel it growing, especially after the biopsy, it kind of went crazy. Maybe it was my imagination.  I still feel the mx was probably the right treatment with a huge tumor, but wish I had at least had the information about neoadjuvant chemo.  At the time, I was just relieved to get the tumor out. Things just happened so quickly.

My surgeon scheduled me so fast (3 days) that I didn't really have time to research anything and only found out after my mx that neo is used for large tumors. I'm glad you have that opportunity and that your right side is clear, it must be a huge relief. I did think, however, that the point of neoadjuvant chemo is to shrink the tumor to a size that a lumpectomy might be possible. I think it also give the oncologist the ability to tell if the chemo is right and working.

Not sure how big 8 cm is...Never could figure out metrics...But my sister's was the size of a golfball...She was diagnosed as Stage 3b and this August 28th is her 5 yr anniversary and we are going to party like it's 1999!......

My tumor was 8 cm and that is the size of a baseball.  Afterwards, the intern assisting my surgeon stated it was large!  I am grade 3 and it has been a year since my treatments finished.  So far, my PET scan is clean and the tumor markers are stable.  I feel good and though I have significant lyphadema, it has not slowed me up.  God bless.

J-Bug, the HER 2 stuff takes a few more days--they stain it and have to wait.  You should hear soon.  I did neo-adjuvant chemo--nice to see it shrink!  They couldn't measure it, or even feel it at my last exam--mine was 2.4 cms, but measure 4.5 cms on the outside--and invasion spread out another 3 cms or so. I'm pretty small chested, but they told me my tumor was too big for a lumpectomy at the time.

I wanted to note one other thing.  Someone above said they could feel it growing after the biopsies.  Me too, and I was WAY worried...until my doc told me that tumors are filled with blood cells, so they bruise and swell up with the biopsies.  So, all those needles poking into it were making it bigger!  I was so relieved to hear that I practically yelled, "Well, why didn't you tell me THAT?!"  LOL!  Hang in there, and good luck!

Yay!  I've been told that seeing results early on in the chemo bodes well for your long term prognosis too!  Good luck, hon!

My mom works full time and her treatment is going very well hang in there everything will get better.

My tumor was 10cm before chemo.  After chemo it had shruck to 5cm.  It has been almost 18 months since I had my MX.  I had clean scans Nov. 2010 and that dreaded day is fastly coming back up.  Wish you the best.

After 4 dose dense AC treatments and 12 weekly taxol treatments, I had a bilateral mastectomy. My tumor measured almost 11 cm x 8 cm @ surgery, but, much of the malignancy was gone. My oncologist and I could tell that it shrunk with the neoadjuvant chemo, so, I have no idea how large it was @ diagnosis. I was diagnosed @ age 63 after many years of regular mamograms. however, I always had very dense breasts. Something interesting I have noted in some of the replies to your post - is that some of the grades of the large tumors are less than grade 3. Mine was grade 1. My opinion is that many of the very large tumors took a number of years to get that large, therefore, were the slow growing type. I am now approximately 1 year post surgery and 7 months post radiation and am doing well. No signs yet of any recurrence, which is my biggest fear - since mine was triple negative.

Hi J-bug - i am down the street in Kenosha.... And, I have about the same story.  I am also ER+ PR- Her2-.  I was 46 when I found it - it was originally at 3cm with the MRI.  I had a second mass that they ended up doing a biopsy- that was not cancer.  Then, I did four rounds of T&C chemo.  That did shrink the tumor and cleaned up the margins.  I had surgery at St. Lukes.  good news - tumor was smaller.  Bad news - there were two sentinal nodes adjacent to the tumor and one had a 4 mm tumor in it.  So, I lost my lymph nodes under the arm and now I am back getting 4 AC and 4 T then radiation.

Other than dense breasts, I had absolutely no indicators for this - and now I am in this hell hole.  Who are you seeing?  I would like to get a second opinion on options because ER+ PR- tends to hit much older women - not premenopausal..... It is rare to find someone close with the same prognoises....