About my mother's invasive ductal carcinoma
Hello everyone,
My mother (Age 53) was diagonised with breast cancer in early June. The excisional biopsy result showed a 1.1 x 0.6 x 0.5 cm malignant tumour in the right breast. Immediately after this diagnosis she had her PET scan. The results of the scan showed that there was a small tumour in her right axilla and a benign tumour in her right thyroid node. My mother had a lumpectomy and surgical procedure which removed all lymph nodes. One week after the surgery we received my mother's pathology report.
The report results were as follows:
- There are no malign tumours in the surgical area.
- There are benign changes in the surgical area.
- There are no skin invasions.
- Only 1 lymph node (1/19) had a small tumour. The tumour size in the lymph node is just 2 mm.
- There are no perinodal invasions.
Our doctor told us that the results were quiet positive, but he didn't stage my mother's cancer. According to my own research on the internet my mothers's cancer stage seems to be Stage 1B. My mother's hormonal receptor is ER+/PR+ (both %20), Cerb-2+ (%90) and the tumour grade is 2.
I look forward to all of your advice and comments.
I wish everyone a speedy recovery.
Alper
Comments
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Hi Alper:
I too was 53 when diagnosed in November last year. I am now 54. Good that your mom's cancer is ER/PR+ - will respond to hormonal therapy. Most likely she will be offered the oncotype test - this will give a good understanding if chemo would be of benefit to your mom. Having a small tumor in the lymph node means that it was doing its job and stopped the cancer from going any further. You mom is lucky to have a daughter like you to support her. All the best. Kathy
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Hi Alper, and welcome to Breastcancer.org. We're sorry about what your mom is going through, but glad you found this wonderful community full of knowledge and support.
Please take a look at the Breastcancer.org's section called Breast Cancer 101. There you'll find a number of links that will direct you to the pages on Breastcancer.org that will help you understand test results, stages of cancer, the individual characteristics of the cancer, treatments, and more.
We hope this helps,
The Mods
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Dear Kathy,
Thank you very much for your encouraging words. I hope that everything is alright with you now. Tomorrow my mother and I will visit a highly respected oncologist and consult him about the way to proceed with the treatment. We are both very optimistic. I must add that I'm my mother's son, not daughter. But I can understand as daughters are much more supportive and sensitive in these matters.
With my warmest regards,
Alper
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Dear moderators,
I feel lucky to have found this very comprehensive site and supportive community. I want to thank you for all your efforts in maintaining this wonderful site.
Keep up the good work!
Alper
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Hi Alper:
I am so sorry I just assumed...I am fortunate, like your Mom is, to have an amazing son like you. He was so supportive to me during my process. I wish your Mom the very best and will be praying for her tomorrow. Please keep us posted.
Have a good night. Kathy
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Alper:
Oh please don't think daughters/women are more supportive and sensitive. But, as you can imagine, we're just used to most posters being women and we aren't familiar with the traditional gender of your name. I will say that I immediately thought it was male, and was surprised when someone thought you were a daughter. You must be quite young, to have a young Mum of only 53.
You're correct, this is a place with very experienced, informed, and researched survivors and care givers. You will always find support here. As for Mum's diagnosis, it looks like she was diligent and her physicians caught things quite early. She'll have some tough times for a bit, then hopefully clear sailing afterward.
Added to that, she gets the additional benefit of living in Turkey! That in itself surely aids recovery! What a wonderful place; I wish I could visit. My daughter spent several weeks there last summer (Istanbul) visiting one of her college roommates who was living there. Another friend also just went for a conference. I was so jealous of both of them.
Let us know how the oncologist visit goes. You'll always find support here.
Best to you both
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Hello,
I couldn't write to you for a long time because I had to take care of my mother. We went to see our oncology doctor 6 days ago. First of all the assistant doctor talked to us briefly, then our doctor gave us some explanations. To speak briefly about our doctor, he is one who has certain principles and rules. At first he mentioned about some points to which we must obey. He said that we needn't consult him for small side effects after the sessions of chemotherapy but in case of serious side effects such as nausea and vomiting, the rising of temperature over 38 degree, we shouldn't act by ourselves. He added that in serious cases we had to go to emergency service. I have full trust for our doctor's knowledge and experience. I draw this conclusion from the respect the other staff shows for him. The doctor said that he didn't see my mother's case as a serious one considering the phase (Phase/Stage 1b) which was my mother's case. He mentioned about the spreading of lymph gland in breast cancer as serious cases but he added that my mother was in a good condition considering the micro metastasis in my mother. He said that the rate of the relapse (recurrunce) of breast cancer is in general 30 per cent and he told about the importance of treatment he would apply. He said that after 6 sessions of chemotherapy he would pass to the application of smart medicine due to the positive case of HER2. He added that there would be hormonal therapy as well. He stated that the rate of relapse would fall to 1 per cent after following that sort of treatment. He was satisfied with our hormone receptors. In our doctor's opinion, our hormone receptors are just one below the best. Yet, my mother is a little restless. This is what she says: "Since I am in such a good condition, then why should I take chemotherapy? Chemotherapy will harm my healthy cells." I tried to tell her that chemotherapy will hinder the local relapse, the probable metastasis or another sort of cancer. I likened this to having flu vaccination before catching flu. She was a little persuaded by what I said but I'm sure she will be more at ease as the days pass. And I asked her to share whatever questions she has with the doctor on the day of chemotherapy. She took her first chemotherapy on August the sixth. And she was given a form of consultation for pathology to determine the grade of cancer. The result of this: Grade 3, introductal carcinomina. The important point was to learn the grade of invasive ductal carcinomina, which was 2. We were pleased to learn this. Four days has passed since the first chemotherapy. She has no complaint apart from a light nausea in the first day. She even cracked a joke saying "I think they gave me water instead of medicine." Today a few hair has dropped from her head but her morale is quite high. I'm looking forward to hearing your experiences of chemotheraphy, wishing you all a speedy recovery. Thank you.
Faithfully yours
Alper Ateş from Antalya-Turkey
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...and, now I just found pics on Facebook that my sister, niece, and brother-in-law are in Cesme, Turkey. Beautiful!
You are an extremely intelligent son, there is no doubt. I see you writing things about the situation that I did not really understand until years after my diagnosis. I'm glad you found a doctor with whom you are both so comfortable. Your Mum definitely has a great prognosis, and your doc probably means she has "one below the best" hormone receptors because the ER+ and PR+ are well studied and there are treatments available that work well. The Her2+ is a little more challenging. But, it's very good to hear that he considers her to have only a 1% chance of reoccurrence after treatment.
Many oncologists have different opinions about when chemotherapy is needed. I would imagine having some cells in one of her lymph nodes tipped the decision to have chemo, or the grade (you mentioned 2 and 3, if I read it right, so I'm not sure which it was). My own oncologist recommended it even at stage 1. I'm glad she's questioning it thought, because not everyone is so anxious to take chemotherapy when it poses its own possibly permanent side effects. But it sounds like she is one of the luckier ones, and is not experiencing the severe short term effects that some do. Some of that depends on what kind of chemotherapy she has.
Let your Mum know that she's being thought of across the world. Best to you both.
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You are a good son to take such good care of your mother!
About the chemo - because your mother is HER2+, she needs to be given Herceptin which is a very effective drug, but which is almost never given without chemo (I think there may be a trial going on, but it is not standard practice). Had she not been HER2+, it may have been possible to forgo chemo, but not with the positive HER2 as that needs Herceptin which means chemo as well.
Hope that helps clear things up a small bit.
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Hello,
First of all, I thank you all for your good wishes and thoughts. My mother had her blood controlled today as she had her first session of chemotherapy last week. Our doctor was pleased with both the result of blood analysis and my mother's condition. I notify to you with great pleasure that everything is under control.
Sincerely yours
Alper Ateş from Antalya- Turkey
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Hello Alper:
So delighted to hear that about your Mom and that everything is under control. Keep us posted.
All the best. Kathy
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Hello,
First of all, how are you? I hope everyone is well. My mother got the second chemotherapy session two days ago. Not seeing any bad side effects except "hair loss" made us happy. My mother's morale is incredibly high. She has good energy and appetite. Recently she went to her dietician and learnt how she would feed herself during this process of treatment. Four sessions of chemotherapy remained for her and that will be followed by smart medicine (Herceptin) and hormone treatment. After 3rd chemotherapy she will get Taxotore during the remaining 3 chemotherapy sessions. Sad as my mother was at the beginning of chemotherapy sessions we didn't make any bargaining with our doctor because these chemotherapy sessions, however unlikeable they seem, are investments for future. In other words, these sessions reduce to a minimal level the fear of whether the cancer will recur once again. I think that no matter how unlikeable they are, these chemotherapy sessions have got more advantages than disadvantages. At least I think so. Our doctor will see us one day before the third session and will probably listen to my mother's impressions about the two sessions she got. Both the oncology centre and the chemotherapy room are far from being gloomy and frightening; they never give such an impression. Nonetheless, I definitely wouldn't like that anybody will have to be there. What saddens me the most is to see very young children taking chemotherapy. I met my mother's breast cancer case with marked composure but I admit that I can't say the same for the children's cancer cases. In short, my mother is quite well, everything is under my responsibility and I am doing my best for my mother's getting over this process with a high morale. I don't boast about doing that because what I am doing is what a son should do unconditionally. I thank you all for your concerns and interests. Take care yourselves!
Sincerely yours
Alper Ateş from Antalya, Turkey
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Hello from Istanbul,
Initially, I want to share some photos I took in Istanbul.
My mother had her third chemotherapy on September 17 th. From now onwards she'll take Taxotere instead of Adriamycn for the next three cures. My mother's general condition and her blood values are good. We were a bit anxious that trombocit values would fall but contrary to our fears those values were a little above the normal levels, that's 480, the average level being 400. Before the third chemotherapy session our doctor examined my mother and he said that everything was good. We were happy to hear that. I hope everything is good for you too. Take care!
Sincerely yours
Alper Ateş
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Hello, how are you, I hope everyone is well. My mother's main treatment was over the last month. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy has been completed. We did not encounter any problems except for slight redness and pain in the chest that occurs during radiation therapy. 3 weeks Herceptin treatment remains the same for a while. Our Doctor (MO) wrote the name of a medicine, it called "Arimidex" and give my mother. My mom uses the medicine for two weeks . We will see our doctor again at the end of May. Our doctor didn't want from us any treatment, such as; lung X-ray, liver ultrasound, or advanced imaging with PET-CT or bone scintigraphy for now. Only tumor marker test it called "CA" he wanted from us. I found it positive. Because I think, some of the treatment like thats, gets some stress for the patient. Meanwhile, a short time ago I lost my grandmother at the age of 96 due to natural causes. My mother and I were very upset because of this situation. Everything is okay for now, take care of yourself very well.
Best Regards.
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So glad things are going well with your mom. I'm sure she'll be grateful when she is done with Herceptin.
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Thanks a lot doxie. I hope so.
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Hello everyone
How are you, i hope you are all fine. In the next week, my mom and i will go the hospital for CEA and CA 15-3 tests (These will be first tumor markers test). My mother's morale is too high. and she has good energy and appetite. And also she's very relax about these tests. This situation is make me very happy. I know about these tests and if i dont wrong, these tests are not equal of PET, CT, X-Ray or something like that. I know, sometimes these test results are not reliable. High score not always about ca or recurrence if i dont wrong. By the way, about my mom health condition, fortunately, she's very healty and no bone or joint pain even she having arimidex. I hope, these test results will be happy us. Any comment about tumor markers test will be very welcome.
Sincerely yours
Alper Ateş from Antalya, Turkey
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Hello everyone
I got my mom's CEA and CA 15-3 results;
CEA: 0.59
CA 15-3: 4.90
Have a nice day everyone.
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Hello everyone
Today, i got my mom's new CEA and CA 15-3 results;
CEA: 0.56
CA 15-3: 5.70
Have a nice day everyone.
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Hello everyone
Today, i got my mom's new CEA and CA 15-3 results;
CEA: 0.68
CA 15-3: 5.10
Next monday, my mom going to radiologist for breast ultrasound. Last ultrasound, (August 2015) our radioglogist found suspect area in the post-surgical area. August ultrasound results are: "On the right breast at the level of 10-11 hours in the outer parts of 32x15x21 mm hypoechoic heterogeneous field including 4-5 microcalcifications. (Mass? Post-operative area?) percutaneous core biopsy is recommended. There are no suspicious area in lymph nodes. Birads 4" Firstly, we shocked in this result but after the radiologist Tru-Cut biopsy, result are "Fibrosis". I searched internet and i found post-surgical areas (with radiotehreapy) looks like malignancy. Our oncologist are said "You can go to the ultrasound test after 6 month later" Today, my mom's had tumor markers test and scores are very good. Our surgical doctor said "If you have local recurrence, this will be affect your tumor markers score"
Your comments are welcome.
Sorry about my very bad english. I can wrote this without help. I hope, you understand all.
Have a nice day everyone.
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Tomorrow, we will going to hosptial for my mom's Breast Ultrasound. Im little bit worried but i hope, radiologist found nothing.
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First of all, greetings to everyone. I hope you are all fine. I took my mother to the doctor yesterday for 4-5 days because of cold symptoms. She had sputum cough, wheezing, and fever. The doctor asked my mother for a blood test and a lung x-ray. Blood test showed Crp value 2. (Should not be higher than 0.5) But I don't think it's too high. On lung x-rays, the doctor asked my mother to have a CT because he was not sure whether what he saw in a very small area was due to infection or breast cancer metastasis. The CT test will take place today. Despite this, the doctor gave my mother anitibiotic, and although she had just taken one of the antibiotics, it was good for her. I hope the image in the lung is only due to infection. I wish you all a healthy day. (Sorry for my bad English.)
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Hope your mother just has a bad cold and the antibiotic does the trick.
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Hello Jelson
My mother took her second antibiotic today. She said she felt better. Her cough was reduced. She had a lot of fever last week, but now she almost doesn't. The night before she started taking antibiotics, she said that she could hardly breathe, but now she's recovered. As you said, hopefully it's just a cold. In the meantime, I would like to mention that my mother has had asthma for years. She uses asthma medications regularly.
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