Two primary tumors

Mariadelpilar · March 2020

I asked my dr. For the oncotype dx since I only had 2 lymph nodes involved, and my tumor was 19mm, but she said I couldn't do that because during surgery they had found a second cancer, 6mm, that I didn't know I had!!! Apparently the big one was IDC and the small (one oops... editing mistake....)WAS IDC TOO! Both unifocal.which makes them two different primary cancers. I asked if this changed my stage or prognosis and she said no. They staged me on the bigger tumor and the two lymph nodes.

Anybody have had similar dx?

Thank you.

ajminn3 · March 2020

In situ means it has not broken out of the milk duct and is generally considered “pre-cancer" and stage 0. Over time it can develop into invasive cancer for some if left. Your staging will be based off the invasive tumor as well as the lymph node involvement. I had a strange case where my primary tumor was 8cm of DCIS only (no invasive component could be identified within it no matter how many times they combed through it looking) and post mastectomy they found 3mm of invasive cancer on a sentinel lymph node. That changed me from stage 0 pre surgery to stage 2 (due to being triple positive) post surgery. Cancer is so strange and shitty!

SummerAngel · March 2020

Staging is done on the largest tumor. I don't know why they couldn't do an Oncotype on the larger, that doesn't make sense to me. The largest tumor I had was in my left breast, and that's the one they did an Oncotype on. The right breast had a larger tumor (1 cm) and 4 small tumors (no larger than 2 mm each).

Mariadelpilar · March 2020

I dont understand either. It does say that they are both unifocal. Not multifocal?

SummerAngel · March 2020

That shouldn't matter. As long as there is enough tissue to test with they should be able to test.

TexasMama · May 2020

I had three tumors and two involved lymph nodes. They did an Oncotype on the largest tumor.

Two primary tumors

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