Hi
Wonder if you could help me? I read you r post about having one internal mammary node positive. I am quite worried as my axilla were clear and they did not test my internal mammary nodes as they said if your axilla are clear and your lump is small with clear margins then they are sure your internal nodes are clear!! My lump was on the inside of my breast and was 1.4 cm. I am now worried that my internal nodes should have been checked.
ALso why do they decide you are node negative if one internal node is involved - is it because it doesn’t spread from there like the axilla? SOrry to go on just interested to see what you were told and find out what type of lump you had?
Love
ALise
ok - 1st of all I have discovered through reading other posts on this site that I am severley lacking in detail about my tumour and the various bits and bobs that go with it… but I will try to answer you as best I can.
The surgeon put things to me in a fairly plain way as follows
On the scans etc the lump looked to be 22mm but now measured 16mm
7 nodes were dug out of my armpit - none of them had any cancer in them
1 node in my boob showed signs of cancer but this did not mean it had ‘spread’
it’s a ‘spread’ if it’s in the lymph nodes
his train of thought was chemo then rads and (depending on the lab results) possibly tamoxifen and/or herceptin - or both.
Lab tests showed er+ but her2 neg
Onc said that the intermammory node made me an unconventional case and as such all the clever ppl would discuss the whys/wherefors/ups and downs … the conculsion was that intermammory node affected did not make me node positive and as such chemo side effects would outweigh the benefits and they felt that rads and tamoxifen would be sufficient.
I was a little unsure about the no chemo decision at the start but decided that they must know what they were talking about and I should trust their decision given that it was a full table discussion with various professionals and not the decision of 1 person.
Thank you for getting back to me!
One last thing was your lump on the inside of your breast ie about ten o’clock?
Love Alise
No my lump was on the outside of my right breast.