One of my worries about surgery

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elise24601
elise24601 Member Posts: 155
edited May 2016 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

What if the surgeons go in and find larger, more advanced cancer than the imaging & biopsy showed?

How common is this? And how common would the reverse be - to find out the tumors were smaller?

Please share if either has happened to you and how it affected treatment.

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  • dtad
    dtad Member Posts: 2,323
    edited May 2016

    elise....just curious what screening you had and what your personal stats are? Did you have a MRI? They are very reliable. Its not unheard of to have a different diagnosis after surgery. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. The waiting is really hard. We all get it. None of us really knew the whole picture 100 percent until the final pathology report comes back. Good luck and keep us posted...

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  • elise24601
    elise24601 Member Posts: 155
    edited May 2016

    I had an ultrasound, mammogram, and biopsy. No MRI.

    Stats so far are IDC in left breast, poorly differentiated, ER+

    Scared that during operation they will find cancer cells in my chest wall or breast skin!!!! Is this typical or am I worried for nothing?

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  • suems
    suems Member Posts: 133
    edited May 2016

    I was initially told my lymph nodes were all clear (from the ultrasound), but after surgery, found that they had removed 24 lymph nodes, 22 of which were full of cancer, and some were leaking out. They found mets in my hip a couple of weeks later.

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  • tangandchris
    tangandchris Member Posts: 1,855
    edited May 2016

    I would say that it isn't uncommon for there to be more uncovered during surgery as scans can only show so much. Personally for me they thought there was only 1 tumor and maybe 2 lymph nodes, but after surgery it was discovered that I had the one larger tumor and 2 smaller/satellite tumors and 6 positive nodes.

    Try not to put the cart before the horse, but at the same time know that all of this can change as surgery and treatment goes on. It is a roller coaster in alot of ways, but it will eventually get smoother.

    ((hugs))

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  • dtad
    dtad Member Posts: 2,323
    edited May 2016

    elise...unless you are having a BMX I would want a pre operative breast MRI to help make treatment decisions. Also it would really help us understand your questions better if you made your stats public. Good luck and keep us posted....

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  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited May 2016

    I would also recommend a pre-surgical MRI unless you already know you are having a MX/BMX. Your surgeon should know approximately where your mass is spatially, based on the previous imaging - and whether or not it is likely to be closer to the chest wall or skin. You should ask what the likelihood is that either of these locations will be a problem, but I have not commonly seen that happen as a surprise in the years I have been posting here. I have seen some here with masses that have been larger than expected, multi-focal when they thought there was one, or smaller than expected. I had no indication of node problem - either by palpation or imaging (mammo/US/MRI), but had two that were positive. The 2.6cm mass was not seen on mammo at all even though it could be rolled between my fingers due to density, but remained consistent in size between both US and MRI.

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