Pathology availability

MRIs are not reliable indicators of nodal involvement. An MRI cannot detect anything smaller than 2mm-3mm in size, so if any nodes have smaller areas of cancer, this would not be detected by an MRI.

Similarly, nodal involvement would generally not be detectable to the naked eye (unless perhaps a node was completely taken over by cancer) so the number of nodes that the surgeon removes is not an indicator of how many nodes may be positive. Lymph nodes are grouped together in levels, and usually a surgeon will choose to remove all Level 1 or possibly all Level 1 and Level 2 nodes. We each have a different number of nodes by level; with 12 nodes removed, I would make an uneducated guess that your surgeon may have removed all your Level 1 nodes.

It takes a detailed assessment under a microscope for a pathologist to detect the presence of cancer cells, and often specials stains are necessary to clarify what's seen. This takes time. This is why full pathology results, both for the nodes and for the breast tissue, are usually not available for at least several days after surgery.

Good luck with you results. Hoping you have just that one positive node.

Hi Scaredashell07,

Just wondering if your surgeon said how long it takes for path? Do you wait for the path results before they advise next treatment step? Hope you are doing well after your surgery. I am a few weeks behind you, so appreciate any tips/etc that you encounter on this step of this journey!

Wishing you fast healing. I feel this period of time between DX and surgery is soooo long for me. So hard to rest my mind about all of this.

Thanks,

Traci