Single mastectomy, no cancer shown in lymph nodes, what's next?

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calusari
calusari Member Posts: 3
edited March 2021 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

Since there wasn't any cancer indicated in the lymph nodes, is it likely that I'll have to do chemo? I am meeting with my surgeon next Tuesday and I'm just wondering what I should expect.

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  • cmartinperez
    cmartinperez Member Posts: 5
    edited March 2021

    Did they do an Oncotype test? I'm in the same position and am waiting for those results next week. That will determine if chemo will be recommended.

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  • KBL
    KBL Member Posts: 2,521
    edited March 2021

    Calusari, my brother had a single mastectomy a few months ago. They did tests on everything to see what kind of cancer, etc. He had IDC, ER+, PR+, HER2-, no lymph node involvement, Stage IIB. He has radiation starting on Monday with no chemo. I believe it all depends on your test results. He also has been told they’d like him to take Tamoxifen. He hasn’t decided on that yet.

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited March 2021

    It depends on the ER, PR and HER2 status. Triple negative cancers usually get chemo even for very small tumors. Same for HER2+. For ER+/HER2- cancers, which are most common, usually an Oncotype test is done to determine the aggressiveness of the cancer, and based on that, chemo may or may not be recommended.

    Do you have an appointment lined up with a Medical Oncologist? It's the MO who makes the chemo recommendation, not the surgeon. The surgeon might offer an opinion, but I've been here long enough to have seen a lot of people surprised when their MO recommends something different than what the surgeon thought.




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  • ruthbru
    ruthbru Member Posts: 57,235
    edited March 2021

    It depends on a lot of factors already mentioned plus the size and grade of the tumor. I had no lymph node involvement and my surgeon did not mention chemo in our post op meeting; so I was very shocked when chemo was recommended by my oncologist. My tumor was big & grade 3, and after looking at all the statistics, chemo made sense for my situation.

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