Stage IIIb or Stage IIIC?

It really doesn't mean very much. It's just another way the docs look at how to treat us. I am IIIC and I don't really think of it as very different between A and C. The IIIc diagnosis is a relatively new thing to breast cancer, so what was once a B diagnosis, now has a new name.

Good luck to you! There are many really helpful and caring women on this site.

Cheers.

Stage IIIB is now for IBC only.  The difference between IIIA & IIIC is the number of lymp nodes (10+ for IIIC).  My onc told me the difference between the two is very important.

Hi Ali.

You are 3C, because it is locally advanced and hasn't spread to distant sites.

I too have nodes that are "off the beaten path", this makes us 3C, regardless of how many nodes are in Axilla.

I met with the rad Onc last week. He is excited to blast the nodes that can't be removed.

They will radiate all the way up my neck, in case any rogue cells got loose.

Cheers, Jo

Josiekat, omg i remember now you are the only other stage 3 person having Lumpectomy. I'm really sorry my brain is so bad since chemo i keep forgetting everything. I even forgot my youngest daughters birthday but remembered a few days before. So have you had Lumpectomy how was it.

A doctor does not truly know what stage you are until the pathology report is final.

 There ae 2 different scenarios for staging;

1.There is clinical staging used for neoadjuvant chemo, and pathological staging which is adjuvant staging with neoadjuvant( before surgery),  the docs only have the clinical findings, palpable tumor and nodes, scans, so a staging is determined based on clinical findings   PRIOR to Chemo & surgery.

2.Adjuvant:  Surgery first ;  definitive  tumor size and lymph node involvement based on Pathology report at Surgery BEFORE chemo.

Hi there lost in mo  (love your name!) I am a Stage IIIC by the posting the mods refer to. Sometimes I get scared.  But then I remember, Hey! I'm nearly 5 years out and have no observable reason to be panicked except for that darnged IIIB rating!

Sometimes now I talk about it with people I didn't know back then and they assume I was lesser staged because I am not completely freaked out and seem to be doing normal. (Actually thriving because I bought a fabulous vacation place assuming my onc. saying I was really not not doing well and I was , well, going to kick the bucket in the near future, was correct. Not so ! and in fact I am typing from my place on the wild west coast of North America. And while I had cancer I also got the world's best promotion in my job to afford it!!!) 

It been said but it's true that you are not a statistic! 

I hated people who said that to me 5 years ago...funnily!! If there is one thing I can stress is that it is really alright to be an optimist! ! all the best, courage, take care M