new staging and what it really means

luckypenny · July 2019

Hello!

Stage 3a girl from 2011. 8 years out from surgery , no real complications since then , been on an AI for all 8 years and will continue as long as I can

Been awhile since I have been on the site and came across the new staging info. So I looked at the staging chart and saw that I would now be considered a 1b. Somehow that doesn't seem right!. Tumor 9 cm but 3 cm of that was DCIS. 8/17 nodes positive but 2 of the 8 had micromets. HER 2 negative, ER positive and PR positive . KI 67 less than 9% or something like that ,really really low. and tumor grade 2

So is that right that I would be a stage 1b now? and what does that really mean ? is that really a better prognosis- and why is that a better prognosis?

my treatment hasn't changed- had double mastectomy, full hyster, act chemo, radiation, zometa for 3 years ( and I do have ONJ from that but I am still alive !). 5 years of metformin .

sbelizabeth · July 2019

I wondered the same thing, Luckypenny, and it looks like our stats are similar. But our tumors don't read the AJCC staging criteria and don't care where they fall within them. When I was first diagnosed I would have been thrilled to know I was Ib instead of 3a, but now that I'm way on the other side of treatment, I can better understand that individual outcome isn't about statistics. It's about how my cancer responds to treatment.

Anna-33 · August 2019

I really want to know this as well ... I was 3B and now 2B???

Onlyme64 · August 2019

Same here, I could not understand the new staging went from 111a to 1b, which I was so thrilled and not questioned... I just listened to a podcast which is on this website, https://www.breastcancer.org/community/podcasts/staging-20190719, and now I understand a little more...

ErenTo · August 2019

You can calculate your stage with the new staging system here.I'm down staged to 2B, it still doesn't make me feel safer though! It’s the pathological stage that matters at the end

https://www.mdcalc.com/tnm-staging-breast-cancer-8th-edition

ksusan · August 2019

And I went up from IIa to IIIc because of an intramammary node, but my oncologist says they don't really know what significance that has, and that I should work from the recommendations for my initial clinical staging 4.5 years ago.

santabarbarian · August 2019

I went from 2B to 3B, thanks to having TNBC. But I had a great response to chemo and a pCR.

I think the new staging is basically following the odds of curing the patient a bit more closely as an early TNBC grade 3 can be much worse than a poky ER+ tumor.

wintersocks · August 2019

Oh I have a headaaaaache trying understand all this, I guess it doesn't really change our original outlook or prognosis? For me i was told it was poor. I might still be but I am nearly 7 years since dx anyway.

Lolis197138 · August 2019

Hi

I think I read somewhere that the old stages are not "re-staged" after the new system, as the new system determines the treatment for the patients based on more advancement of treatments.

new staging and what it really means

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