Anyone have a small grade 1 tumor that was node + ?

My tumor was .6cm and was grade 1.....one of my nodes had a micromet of .15 cm. my tumor was too small that the oncotype came back inconclusive so the oncs recommended four rounds of TC chemo. I am just finishing rads and I just worry about it coming back. I had such a low chance to get cancer and got it. Then they told me I had such a low chance of lymph node involvement and got that,.....I now need to come to grips with moving forward. Hugs

Runnergirl2013, I'm surprised your onco test came back inconclusive. My tumor was also .6cm, and they had no trouble testing mine.  Icame back in the dreaded gray area at 24 which is a bummer to say the least, but at least I know!

My initial diagnosis was IDC stage 1 with 1.8 microcalcifications, nothing to feel, just cancer cells. The mammogram and Ultrasound showed no node involvement. My MO and surgeon said they didn't expect any surprises with the lumpectomy. The pathology showed 1 cm microcalcifications and a 4mm macromet in the sentinal node. I was upgraded to stage lla, grade ll. It was hard to swallow because all the original evidence and the professionals were indicated something much less invasive. We then went from only doing 33 rounds of radiation to now 6 rounds of chemo, plus the 33 rounds of radiation. I'm typing this while sporting my sleep cap that covers up my 90% bald head. It is really hard to wrap your head around how unpredictable this all can be.



I hope you can all find peace with it. I'm still trying to find it!

Aussieched your stats are similar to mine. My micromet was .6mm, so tiny, and the tumor was 18mm. Both the biopsy of the tumor, and the actual tumor were tested, and both were grade 1 with mitotic counts of 1.

My oncologist said my ki67 of 18% was unusual and indicated a propensity for travel.

I worry about late recurrence, but I worry abut most things.

Xx kk

Kyliet that's interesting. The radiation oncologist said that about 5% of low grade tumours have a high ki67. Maybe it's an age thing, how old are you?

On the other hand, my second opinion medical oncologist said that a ki67 of 14% would have been the cut off an I wouldn't have been offered chemo if I was under that. He also said that the testing for it is unreliable and with a different lab tech on a different day I could've had a different number, so I don't know how much weight to put on it really

Xx Kk

I know your post is almost 2 years old, but in your post you stated that your physician said that  because your tumor was so slow growing, you will need monitoring longer. You stated that you physician said that if you did get a recurrence, it would likely occur after 20 years? I had triple negative breast cancer wanted to know this.  Do slower growing tumors have a tendency to recur later?  The tumor i had was a grade 3 tumor and I was in stage 2.

Lydiabest,

I think it's hard to know what was inferred by a doctor's statement without knowing in what context he was speaking, etc.  So regarding the 20 years before a recurrence, I think it's just too ambiguous to know what that doctor meant.  Plus, if a bc occurs again after 20 years, I think it's called a new primary, not a recurrence.  

Here is a link to the Mitotic Grading Scale and the information that goes into evaluating and grading each tumor to arrive at the Grade 1, 2 or 3 classification.  It's also worthy to note here as well that a Grade 1 tumor presents with node involvement or there is lymphatic invasion, then I believe they say that the tumor is acting aggressively -- and likewise a tumor that is Grade 3 and perhaps very large, like 5cm but not in the nodes or lymphatic system, would be acting less aggressively.

So try to remember that the Grade is only one factor to estimate a patient's prognosis, it's one diagnostic tool and there are many tools by which the doctors use to assess and plan for our survivorship.

http://pathology.jhu.edu/breast/grade.php

From the link "The grade of a breast cancer is representative of the "aggressive potential" of the tumor; in a broad generalization, "low grade" cancers tend to be less aggressive than "high grade" cancers. Determining the grade is thus very important, and the clinicians use this information to help guide the treatment options for patients."

bahamamom...I am one of those people with a Grade 1 tumor and a micromet in the SN. I was staged at Stage 1 before my lumpectomy but the Path report after surgery showed a micromet in the SN. My BS was surprised; I was shocked. I asked my Oncologist why they didnt take out more nodes and she said because they didnt believe other nodes were affected because of the small size. She reassured me if they believed there was more node involvement they would have removed more nodes. My BS said they had to dissect and dissect again to find it and it would probably mean chemo. It didn't. My Oncologist ordered the Oncotype test and my score came back@11 with an 8% chance of recurrence following 33 RADS treatments and at least 5 years on Tamoxifen. The micromet was so small...thus micro...that it was labeled as node negative. My understanding is the lower the grade the better. We all know this is a crapshoot no matter what our stats are and no guarantees. More often than not lower stage tumors and grade levels enhance your chances of it not coming back but we all know the medical community isn't infalliable nor are the tests. Good luck. Diane