Hi everyone. I’ve got a bit of time to think waiting for further surgery and results and wondered if anyone had been in a similar situation and what this potentially means. I had 14mm lobular breast cancer diagnosis, ER/PR+ 7/8, HER2-, onco 17. I had a lumpectomy with clear margins, but 1/2 nodes with 5.5mm macromets in SLNB. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the sentinel lymph node (i.e. the node with the blue dye) that had the cancer, but the other lymph node that was nearby that was obstructing the sentinel. Has anyone had this? I’ve been trying to look into this - and it seems this might be possible where the sentinel is blocked and therefore dye is diverted or where the cancer has already moved through the sentinel. It’d be good to hear if others have had this as it’s freaking me out a bit. I’m having a level 1 axillary clearance this week. Thanks everyone.
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Hi @frazzle100 it quite understandable you are feeling anxious about this. I had a sentinel node biopsy and was informed they would take 3/4 nodes for testing. Some I understood to be not sentinel nodes, depends on where the dye travels but it was 2 years ago and I my have remembered incorrectly.
It might be helpful to call the BCN nurses but they aren’t back until 9am Monday (9-4). MacMillan have a helpline 7 days a week 8-8 0800 808 0000 if you want to talk it through before Monday.
There may be others who respond and have had a similar situation.
Good luck with your clearance this week.
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I’ve heard of it happening but it’s rare. Did they check the sentinel node that the node with cancer was blocking? Was that the sentinel node they took out?
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