any long term survivors with lymph node involvement out there?

bump...

Hi Diane,

Tomorrow is my 4-year cancerversary!! My diagnosis was

3cm, Stage IIb, Grade 3, 2/30 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-

Had a lumpectomy, axcillary dissection, 5 long months of chemo & 6 weeks of daily radiation I've been on Arimidex for 4 years now. No evidence of disease & Im enjoying my daughters' life milestones! Hold on to hope.

I know quite a few long-term survivors, but not sure about their ER PR and HER2 status.

- survivor #1, my friend's mom: 21-year survivor, diagnosed in her early 40s, had chemo

- survivor #2, my friend's mom, 13-year survivor, diagnosed in her 50s, had 4 rounds of chemo

- survivor #3, a volunteer in the hospital I had operation at, 11-year survivor, stage 3 at diagnosis, many lymph nodes were involved, had chemo before surgery to shrink

- survivor #4, my husband's grandmother, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1920s, had a mastectomy, died at the age of 93.

God bless you all and sending prayers for many, many more wonderful years.

Bump

Approaching 5 years:)

Hey Homemom:

From experience, I know as more years go by, you do put it to the back of your mind. The awful fear diminishes. You still need to note any unusual symptoms that linger to your doctor though. But, you are not terrified it is back. You are just following due diligence.

Heres hoping you are all NED forever!

Wallan

Hi Annkat:

I had AC and taxol chemo. Before the AC infusion, they tested the injection volume from my heart to see how strong it was and it came back low, so they told me I couldn't have chemo because I had a "weak" heart. I had my heart retested because I was only 41 at the time and had never had any issue with my heart. I was active and healthy. it was a misreading the first time and my heart was deemed strong enough for chemo. But this delayed my chemo by about 3 weeks. Then, after my first AC infusion, when I came back for the second one 3 weeks later, my blood counts were too low and they told me I could not have chemo that week. I came back in one week. Again, the blood counts were too low. I couldn't have chemo again. They did put me on shots to build up my blood at this time. It took about two weeks for my blood counts to be okay for more chemo. This interrupted my chemo for 3 weeks. This cancer was stage 3a, 2 positive nodes, aggressive. It has not recurred after 13 years NED. So, having a disruption in my chemo regime did not affect the outcome. Hugs to you and your mom.

wallan

me.. although I have just been diagnosed with a new primary in my other breast.

My original cancer is all gone

there is a study in here which shows zero difference in one node vs no nodes long geen

Thank you for sharing, it is wonderful to read all these posts!

Large tumor and 2 positive nodes with capsular extension - 14 years ago.

No recurrance of that cancer. New primary other side though almost a year ago now.

Wallan

HoneyBeaw,

Here is the article I was referring to. I came across it when my wife was trying to decide whether or not to do rads. I posted this in the “Stage 2B with Positive Nodes” thread years ago. The data might interest you.

“Benefit of Radiation After Mastectomy Isn't Clear”

Published on March 6, 2010 at 12:00 am
Last modified on November 19, 2012 at 5:14 pm
TOPIC: Radiation Therapy
TAGS:
A study tried to offer more information on whether women who have mastectomy to remove early-stage breast cancer (stage I or stage II) can benefit from radiation therapy after surgery. Unfortunately, there isn't a clear answer.

Radiation therapy is used after lumpectomy to remove early-stage breast cancer to lower the risk of the cancer coming back (recurrence). Research has shown that lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy is a good alternative to mastectomy for many women.

Still, many women choose to have mastectomy instead of lumpectomy. Because mastectomy removes the whole breast (as opposed to lumpectomy which removes only the cancer tumor and a portion of tissue around it), many women who have mastectomy don't have radiation therapy after surgery. But if the cancer has spread to the underarm lymph nodes, cancer experts have recommended that radiation therapy be considered after mastectomy:

if cancer cells are in four or more lymph nodes, radiation is almost always given
if cancer cells are in one to three lymph nodes, radiation is often given
Recommendations about using radiation therapy after mastectomy are based on studies done from 1964 to 1984. Since that time, breast cancer care has improved. We now have earlier diagnosis, better surgery methods, and better approaches to treatment. Because of advances in breast cancer care, researchers wanted to look at recurrence risk after mastectomy in more recent years and how much lymph node involvement affected that risk.

The researchers looked at the medical records of 1,019 women diagnosed with stage I or stage II (early-stage) breast cancer between 1997 and 2002. All the women had mastectomy and had from zero to three lymph nodes involved:

74% had zero positive lymph nodes
17% had one positive lymph node
7% had two positive lymph nodes
2% had three positive lymph nodes
Most of the women (77%) got chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or both after mastectomy. None of the women had radiation therapy after surgery.

After about 10 years, only 2.3% of the women had a breast cancer recurrence after mastectomy. The risk of recurrence seemed to be somewhat linked to the number of positive lymph nodes:

2.1% for women with zero positive lymph nodes
3.3% for women with one positive lymph node
7.9% for women with two positive lymph nodes
The number of women with three positive nodes was too small to analyze.

The very small difference in recurrence risk between women with zero positive lymph nodes and women with one positive node wasn't statistically significant, which means it could be due to chance and not because of the difference in the number of positive lymph nodes.

The recurrence risk for women with two positive lymph nodes was significantly higher than recurrence risk for women with one or zero positive nodes, which means the difference was likely due to the larger number of positive nodes. Still, the 7.9% risk of recurrence is much lower than the 20% to 25% recurrence rates found in earlier studies looking at recurrence risk after mastectomy.

Recurrence risk after mastectomy also was significantly higher for women age 40 and younger compared to women who were older than 40.

Because the risk of recurrence was lower in this study than in older studies, the researchers suggested that routinely giving radiation therapy after mastectomy to remove early-stage breast cancer to women older than 40 who had zero to three positive lymph nodes may not make sense. It does seem clear that radiation therapy after mastectomy is very important for women younger than 40 with positive lymph nodes.

Other breast cancer experts feel that more research is needed before changing the recommendations about using radiation therapy after mastectomy to remove early stage-breast cancer in women with one to three positive lymph nodes.

If you've been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, you and your doctor will decide on the type of surgery -- lumpectomy or mastectomy -- that makes the most sense for you. If lumpectomy is your choice, it's very likely that your doctor will recommend radiation therapy after surgery. If mastectomy is your choice, you and your doctor will consider a number of factors, including:

your age
cancer stage
number of lymph nodes involved
that can influence your risk of recurrence as you decide if radiation therapy after surgery makes sense for you and your unique situation.

that baby aspirin will really help you

HomeMom,

As much as all of this is science—it's still not completely understood. Everyone makes the best decisions they can with the information they have at the time. I wouldn't for 1 moment dare second-guess anyone here. I would rather consider that you swung big at your cancer and took care of business. God bless you.