Diagnoses/biopsy results

You are NOT a "broken record", you are someone we all recognize in our own past experiences. I just think that most of us on the threads that have our active tx behind us, try to offer what help and encouragement we can to women such as you, who are just beginning.

As you can see in my "info".....my dx and tx was many years ago, and the experience for me was much different from yours. Less choices offered to me in tx, less knowledge and support to help me through the side effects of chemo, and NO support from other women, or resources like BCO....but...despite all that, I made it through, and you will too.

Hi seq24:

Very glad to hear there is no further node involvement. The question of "systemic" drug therapies, such as chemotherapy or endocrine therapy is within the area of expertise of the medical oncologist, and is not within the area of expertise of the surgeon (although they sometimes comment on it).

Please confirm it with your team and against your written reports, but in general, the total tissue removed is the "specimen" and there will be a gross description of this in the pathology report. The "mass" typically refers to the tumor. The "margins" typically refer to the cancer-free area between the tumor mass and the edge of the specimen. Here is a brief description with illustrations from the main site of "surgical margins":

http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/margins

Imaging may underestimate the size of a mass. However, a 1.1 cm (11 mm) and 1.8 cm (18 mm) tumor would both be considered "T1" in terms of size only (T1 = Tumor ≤ 20 mm in greatest dimension), so this particular size change would not alter your staging.

Histology (e.g., ductal, lobular, etcetera), actual tumor size ("T"), lymph node status ("N"), ER status, PR status, and HER2 status, as well as other factors, such as tumor grade, the presence of lymphovascular invasion in the breast, and if applicable, multiparameter test results (such as Oncotype Recurrence Score), as well as personal medical and family history (including age, menopausal status, co-morbidities), inform the recommendations of medical oncologists about chemotherapy, HER2-targeted therapy (for HER2-positive disease) and/or endocrine therapy. Because of this, you will want to know what these are from a personal inspection of your pathology reports. For your review and records, please ensure you receive copies of the complete pathology reports from all biopsies (including the pre-surgery lymph node biopsy), and the surgical pathology (including sentinel node biopsy results).

Best,

BarredOwl

Since you had axillary lymph node dissection you do need to be aware of the risk of developing lymphedema . No needle sticks or blood pressure cuffs on that arm.

Seq, sorry I didn't read recent posts and now realize you had surgery. Good news about one node, but fro what they told me you do want to have chemo with any node involvement because it can metastasize from there and chemo gets all those Stray cells. chemo is not the horror story it's made out to be. Just be prepared. Ice your hands and feet with taxol and no neuropathy. Suck on ice while any chemo going in and no mouth sores. I am doing penguin cold caps so I can't speak to hair loss.

seq24, get that Oncotype AND a second opinion! (You don’t have to go to the second-opinion hospital, e.g. M.D. Anderson or City of Hope, to get the treatment the second-opinion MO recommends. You are the patient. It’s your money. YOU are driving the bus!). If your Oncotype is, say 18-25, do what Lisey and Dara did and follow it up with a Mammaprint. (Both had nearly identical OncotypeDX scores, but Lisey’s Mammaprint results were “low-risk,” enabling her to skip chemo; Dara’s came back “high risk” so she’s doing chemo).

ChiSandy, I am in St. Louis. I could not put on my diagnosis that I have one affected lymph node also. You can only list lymph node if you already had the surgery. It was diagnosed through a core biopsy so that determined the chemo. My onco explained they do chemo just to be sure nothing snuck out of the node and floating around. The tumor is kind of inconsequential. Shrinking the lymph node before surgery is the goal. I am then doing nipple sparing bmx.