Does this mean I am cancer free?

Hi!

You will never know whether you have really had a pathological complete response (PCR) until you have surgery. The scans aren't perfect. For example, my post-chemo MRI and PET scan detected no active cancer, and that may well be. But, when I had surgery, the pathology report showed that I still had a tiny pocket of DCIS (non-invasive cancer cells). Plus, scans cannot necessarily pick up microscopic cells, especially those which may have already moved to another part of your body. Best to finish chemo and Herceptin!

((Hugs, though)) -- your scan sounds very promising!

Wow, that's great that your tumor shrunk so much.

What Elaine Therese said about scans vs. surgical pathology is important.  It's best not to identify too strongly with scan results because they are often not completely accurate.  It's just not possible to see microscopic detail on scans that pathologists can see when looking at the actual tissue.  Making the call about whether there are any cancerous cells remaining in your breast by MRI is like trying to describe all the paintings on the walls of someone's 5th story apartment by Google street view.

"Cancer free" isn't really a medical term, so if and when you decide to use it is kind of up to you.  Doctors NEVER say that when talking about patients amongst themselves.  In my personal life, I never use it because there is no way to know that it's true.  Even a "complete pathological response," which IS a medical term and means that they can't find any cancer in the surgical specimen, doesn't mean that a person is "cancer free."  One of the purposes of chemo is to kill any cancer cells that traveled away from the tumor via lymphatics or bloodstream and have found other places in the body settle down.  For women who have surgery first and have clear margins, killing those tiny foci of metastasis is the main purpose of chemo, and many of us never know for sure if it was successful unless we find out that it wasn't.  There's just no way to know:  no scan picks up metastases below a certain size, and that size is actually huge compared with a cell or a few cells that have floated through the body. I've been done with surgery, chemo and radiation for quite some time, but I still have a substantial risk of recurrence, which will never go down to zero.  When people ask if I am "cancer free," I tell them there is "no evidence of disease."  For me, it's more honest and accurate. 

On the other hand, I do know people who feel more able to go on with their lives if they use those words.  I see a different kind of truth in that:  it's not a medical term, but if you aren't dealing with the acute treatment of detectable disease, you are, in a way, free of it.  If being able to say that is important to you, I'd at least wait until done with surgery.     

You are not really cancer free until you have had surgery and you get pathological info. That could tell another story as chemo does not usually effect ER+ completely. Surprised they would not tell you that

Mojo- I had the same thing happen and when I had surgery there was no cancer cells found in the breast and the lymph nodes were clear. I took that as a great sign that the chemo worked, I did the radiation and am currently still taking Herceptin and will until March 2018

I don’t mean this to sound funny or disrespectful. I have seen on these threads a phrase, you don’t know if you are cancer free till you die from something else.

To be plain, most of us die with bc rather than of bc.

jbdayton, that is great news. Since you went for bmx you got fantastic info from pathology.