TN but how do I know what stage it is?

Quick background, my husband found the lump the first week of Mar right before we went on our honeymoon.. I blew it off for nothing more than sore muscles from softball practice ( I coach). A few weeks later the lump is still there. Saw the Dr's, mammogram, ultrasound and had a biopsy. It came back positive and positive lymph nodes. After right radical mastectomy and removal of lymph nodes, 4/13 positive and a left simple mastectomy, I have my first oncology appt. Dr informs me it is triple negative. I had no idea what that meant and was too dumb to ask. When I got home I started investigating what that really meant. Had a good cry and am moving on. But How do I know what stage the TN is. I know my lump was 2.5cm and 4 of 13 nodes positive. I thought TN was the worst on a scale of 1-3 it was a 3 being the worst. Can anyone help? I have my first chemo on May 25th.

Topperfan5, although triple negative is generally is considered aggressive enough to require chemo, the good news is that when you have no evidence of disease after about five years post-treatment, the risk of recurrence dips quite low, lower than the hormone-receptor positive types.

Staging is complex and you really need to ask the doctor. It has to do with the size of the tumor, and the extent and location of the positive nodes. But keep in mind that your own response to treatment is more important than that stage number.

Edited to say that I cross-posted with SpecialK. I agree that it looks like stage IIIA. But it could be different is some of the positive nodes were only micromets, or if there was any spread outside the nodes, etc.

Just wanted to chime in, what made me a IIIb was the inflammatory aspect, otherwise due to tumor size and lymph nodes I would have been a IIIA. Just finished my last chemo 4/18 and heading to surgery 5/24.

I agree with the others that based on what you've told us, it sounds like a IIIa. I know it's hard, but try not to get too hung up on the stage because with chemo, and radiation, you can achieve no evidence of disease. Try to update your profile and others with similar diagnosis and hormone receptors can give you a lot of help.

Some of the best advice I was given on these boards was to use the internet sparingly. A lot of the information will scare you to death, and is outdated, even from some of the more 'respectable' websites.

You are in the right place, these boards are amazing and help a lot. There is a wonderful thread called, Calling all TN's.

Hello Topperfan5,

There seems to be a lot of conversation about stage of cancer tumour on some of the threads, so I thought I would post the following chart about how these stages are arrived at by the medical experts. We all know, or should know, that stages go from 0 to 4. This is a chart that I have copied from the Merck Manual Home Health Handbook. I hope you will find it useful. It is best not to worry about the stage on diagnosis, as your treatment will deal with shrinking tumours or getting rid of them.

Do not mix up stage with grade. Most TNBC tumours are grade 3 but not all of them are. Some are grade 2.

Get used to asking your medical team questions, such as what is the size of my tumour, what is the grade, what chemotherapy drugs are you going to suggest and why, what kind of surgery do I need and why, shall I need radiotherapy and for how long, and so on and so forth? Do not be afraid to ask as many questions as you feel you may need.

You might like to join the thread Calling all TNs, where there are many lovely helpful ladies. You might also like to join my own thread Calling all triple negative patients in the UK. There are posters on this thread from other countries, such as the US and Canada, not just the UK.

Best wishes

Sylvia

Hello everyone again,

This is another chart that I have been reading in the Merck Medical book that I thought might be of help to everyone, especially those newly-diagnosed and those going through treatment.

Fond thoughts.

Sylvia

I have worked in a cancer hospital for more than 18 years - I am a radiation therapist by trade

the way that all cancers are classified is on a TNM scale
T = tumor (usually based partially on size)
N = Nodes (whether they tested positive or not and how many)
M = Metastasis (whether or not there is sign of cancer spread to anywhere else in the body)
- - - in most cases if a cancer is staged as a '4' that means it is metastatic and the cancer has spread

they are also given a grade from 1 - 3 based on how differentiated the cells are
- the more 'unlike' a normal cell the higher the grade (ie: grade 3 cancer cells are poorly differentiated and usually more aggressive - most [but not all] triple negative breast cancers are grade 3)

the staging and grade are not the same thing - staging is the method to describe how advanced the cancer is (easiest way for me to describe it) and grade is how aggressive the cancer cells are