Lymph node involvement

I had two positive nodes out of four. When I met with the genetics nurse about my genetic testing, she told me that now cancer with five or less positive nodes is considered curable. Has anyone else heard this? I have not found that statement in any of my reading but that is what she said. I would LOVE for that to be true, but I want to hear it again from another reliable source. In the meantime, I continue through my chemo regimen and pray that it is working.

mimioleary, oftentimes people with many positive nodes go on to live out their full lifespans with no recurrence of BC. Some people on here object to the word "cured" but there are people with Stage I, II and III cancer who complete their treatments and are never bother by BC again-whether you want to call in "cured" or "NED" or "in remission"-the end result is the same, they die of something else.

With one positive node, my oncologist considers me to be a low risk for a recurrence and did not even recommend chemo. Lots of things besides stage, including the type and aggressiveness of the cancer, go into the prognosis. While everyone would prefer to be node negative, I think it is important to clear up the misconception that having positive nodes means you are doomed. It does not.

Very good points. Thank you.

Cindysmom,

What was your surgery?

Did you have chemo before the surgery?

Depending on your surgery and the extent of lymph node involvement you may or may not be offered radiation.

If your BC is hormone positive depending on your premenopausal status you will be then beoffered Tamoxifen or Aromatase inhibitors.

If you fill in your history and make it public - it will be a little easier to comment.

It's a tough time waiting for the pathology - hang in there - stage 2b is a tumour less then 5 cm with less then 3 nodes involved - lots of potential for it to be cured.

Yes, I had Chemo before surgery that's when they said it was 2a, but during surgery they found the Chemo had not killed all the cancer cells. Do they do second rounds of Chemo doesn't that mean the cancer that I had at the time of the biospy was still active and could have spread. Going to insist on a PET scan, Does hormonal therapy work like Chemo (ie kill cancer cells or does it just prevent reoccurence). Just losing it around here, hoping for a cure somehow....

Hi,

I have sentinel node biopsy surgery scheduled for April 12 (Wednesday). They'll do the dye/marker/whatever, the remove some sentinels. They'll freeze and test the nodes while I'm still in surgery (I'm also having a cervical polyp removed). If the nodes test positive, the BS will remove the rest of the nodes.

Well, that sounded fine to me at first, but now I'm wondering. I'm Her2+, and haven't met with an ONC yet (waiting for the node info). BS said the usual treatment for my cancer is surgery (had 9mm mass removed during biopsy, but margins were narrow and BS wants them better) with node biopsy (possible removal), with radiation and chemo plus targeted therapy (most likely Herceptin).

My question for this thread is: if I'm going to be stuck doing chemo anyway because of the HER2+ status, is there any point in removing all the lymph nodes and putting me at risk of lymphedema? Even if the sentinels are positive, can we leave them in and rely on the radiation and chemo to kill any cancer in the nodes? (BS says there's no palpable node masses.)

Thanks for any info and advice.

Hi,

Not sure if anyone is following my posts, but here's an update.

I had a second surgery Wednesday April 12th. BS reopened the site where the mass was because she wanted to make the narrowly-clear margins from the initial lumpectomy/biopsy bigger. She removed one lymph node, it felt normal to her, so she closed me up and will send the node for pathology. I had done some research about node removal, and we decided to remove all the nodes only if the sentinel nodes were riddled with cancer. Also, my gynecologist removed a cervical polyp. Yay to them both for coordinating it so i could get both surgeries in one shot!

Next step is a followup with BS when the pathology report comes in. Then off to an oncologist.

Before the node biopsy, I'm stage 1, but I have aggressive HER2 3+positive, grade 3, ER/PR neg, Ki-67 74% cancer. BS initially told me the standard treatment for this is both radiation and chemo with Herceptin. But there seem to be variations among people.

I'm torn between wanting to avoid as much toxic and potentially harmful treatment as possible, versus hitting the cancer with everything they've got, and just dealing with then side effects. I'm only 55. But I have a ton of chronic co-morbidities, including fibromyalgia and bipolar, plus lots of other stuff. I'm already on disability, not working. Already in chronic pain, fatigue, depression. It's not like a year or two of unpleasant treatment is going to make a whole lot of difference in my QOL!!! LOL!

Bye for now.

New primary in the same breast. After learning 2 months ago that I have to get another lumpectomy, I did. Now, my surgeon informs me that during the next operation he will emove a couple lymph nodes He will then rush them to the lab and see if any of them are more than 2 mms. If any are, he's going to take them ALL out ( I think that's over 20.)

I looked at other women's posts on this formum and noticed that hardly anyone had all their lymph nodes taken out. What am I missing here? Isn't this somewhat of an overkill? Thanks and my best to all of you

PS Sending positive thoughts your way and hoping both of us won't need that procedure!

Hi Cherry, I had a BMX last month. My sentinel nodes looked fine during surgery. They sent them out for more testing. 2 out of my 3 nodes we're positive. One was completely full. There is about a 10% chance that it can be missed during surgery. I went back in for auxillary node dissection on the 16 of this month. The rest of the nodes we're negative. I didn't realize how scared I was until the results came back. Staying at stage 2b was a big relief. I hope the best for you. I'm new at this, so my emotions are all over the place. The unknown is scary. I am sending the warmest wishes your way and will be hoping for the best. Leils

has anyone here with stage 2A breast-cancer ever had this scenario? And if so how did you manage to catch it in time ?

I mean, why would anyone even have a sentinel node biopsy if there was no cancer in the breast ? Makes no sense to me.

- Stage IIA describes invasive breast cancer in which: no tumor can be found in the breast, but cancer (larger than 2 millimeters) is found in 1 to 3 axillary lymph nodes (the lymph nodes under the arm) or in the lymph nodes near the breastbone (found during a sentinel node biop

let me clarify. What I'm asking is how could someone have lymph node disease but no cancer in their breast. That is considered a stage IIA cancer

no I don't think so. I looked at the link and I don't think that that's what I am puzzled about here. I read somewhere on the website that you could have breast cancer cells in the lymph node without the primary. How does that happen? They call of the stage 2A, like I copied and pasted in this thre

peppopat, I'm 2A and had a primary tumor. Here is a definition of 2A. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms?cdrid=45146

Hi Everyone- I had a lumpectomy on Sept. 11 with sentinel node dissection. I met with my MO the other day to review the pathology report and it came back with two nodes positive with only two nodes removed. One of the nodes had extra- capular extension the other did not. My concern is that only two nodes were removed and both were positive. My MO said best treatment is chemo then radiation as this has the same prognosis as axillary node dissection with less side effects (lymphodema). I am very concerned there are more effected nodes. Just wondering if anyone has been in this situation and what there thoughts were. Thank you for any input!