Just diagnosed yesterday

I am sorry you're going through this. This part is one of the hardest times....not knowing and waiting. The staging usually occurs after surgery when final pathology on size and node status is known.

Start your list of questions for the 12th now. The staging may be presumed based on the information your provider has currently, but wont be definitive until it's removed and more information is known, including node status. You've found a great place of support here. This is a journey no one wants to travel, but when forced .... you're in the right place.

Dear Logang, sorry you had to join us but glad you found the site. I was diagnosed on 12/31 so I'm not able to answer your questions. But I wish you all the best. ..stay strong. One day at a time.

Hi Logang!

Your healthcare providers will test the material taken from your biopsies and use it to find out whether your cancer is hormone positive and HER2+. It may take a week or so to find out that information. If your cancer is HER2+, your MO (medical oncologist) may recommend neoadjuvant chemotherapy (chemo before surgery). If your cancer is triple negative ER-PR-HER2-, your MO might also recommend neoadjuvant chemotherapy. However, if your cancer is ER+PR+HER2- (most common) you will probably get your surgery first. Best wishes!

Staging can't be definitively assessed until after surgery--only after the tumor is out, with clean margins, can its size be determined; lymph node status is also part of the formula and that can't be determined until the nodes are biopsied. But your surgeon can often guesstimate size from imaging, and make a preliminary and tentative guess as to stage--which is subject to change based on the surgical pathology.

However, grade is usually determined via initial biopsy--with the caveat that multiple tumors might have different profiles

Also, the size of your tutor might be smaller because of non0invasive ductal carcinoma can often accompany the invasive one. Mine started out 2.5 cm but after surgery, 1 cm.