Hi ladies,
I am due to have my op on 23 feb,full axilly clearance plus mastectomy,as i had chemo first how will they know how many nodes were effected, if the chemo kills the cancer cells.Lesleyx
ps large tumour, plus lymph nodes under arms before chemo.
Hi lesley - I had chemo before mastectomy and then full axillary clearance. I was lucky as my nodes were not affected. My understanding is that if there has been cancer in the nodes there are changes to the tissue that indicates that cancer had been there. When they looked at my breast tissue after the op the lump had reduced from about 5cm to 2 cms and there was scar tissue / dead tissue which had been cancer.
Good Luck with the surgery, if you have any questions please ask. I know its a lot to take in.
Clare X
Hi clare,
Thankyou for you’re reply.Yes it is a lot to take in, but i think i’ll be glad when this op is over -very nervous.Lesleyx
Hi lesley,
I had the same and was very nervous before my op too. I have to say in the end it went smoothly and I found it much easier to handle than the chemo.
My tumour had reduced from 12cm to 1.5cm and, like Claire, there was a lot of dead tissue in the breast. They told me after the op that they had found no cancer in the nodes but couldn’t say with certainty that none had been affected before the chemo. Their view was that since the chemo had worked so well it didn’t actually matter.
Good luck with the op.
Jan xx
Hi Lesley
that’s a really good question. I had chemo and a second scan before my operation. The scan result said that it had had a good clinical result especially in the lymph nodes where it was no longer showing activity. I had an axillary clearance and they were still able to see that there had been/was(?) cancer in the first two levels of nodes. I never did get a full explanation of how the two things went together.
If they can tell from the type of scar tissue it produces then that makes sense.
My large tumour reduced by two thirds and the surgeon said all it could actually see and feel when doing the op was a bit of thickening. He said he has seen rare cases where the tumour disappears completely with the chemo.
There are so many questions to ask and some doctors seem so unwilling to explain properly that it constantly seems to be a case of which question is the most pressing to get an answer on.
If you find out more Lesley I would really appreciate it if you would pass that on to us.
Hope all your treatment goes very well.
Elinda x
Hi Jan,Elinda.
Thankyou for you’re reply.My tumour is 6cm(mri breast booth)and after having ultrasound on diagnosis they could see that one of my lymph nodes was slightly enlarged,so because of my age 43, and size of tumour, i had chemo to shrink tumour and mop up any stray cells.
I have been told that i’ll be having rads, but that i might have to have more chemo depending on the outcome of op.I’LL KEEP YOU POSTED.
Lesleyxx
ps i had ct scan at start of chemo.
Hi Elinda, Jan
Did you have more chemo after op or just rads.Lesleyx
Hi lesley.
No more chemo for me thank God. Six cycles was quite enough. I had 25 rads after the op and now back on herceptin. I’ve 14 doses of herceptin to go.
Jan xx