Hi there I’m very newly diagnosed. I have a 9mm small but grade 3 fast growing lump, hormone accelerated, in one breast with lumpectomy booked on May 30th. My HER protein results are not back yet. What should I be worried about? Any advice please x
Hi there, I’m so sorry you’ve had to join our special club and try to get up to speed so quickly.
I know there’s a mass of information thrown at you and it’s hard to process all at once.
Try not to worry about the timing of the HER protein results. The most important thing is your surgery is booked for a few weeks time.
Once they remove the lump, they will be able to properly assess it in a lab and give you a full diagnosis.
I had my Mastectomy 3 weeks ago and what had previously been diagnosed from biopsy as 1 x 9mm Invasive Ductal cancer and 1x 5 mm Invasive Lobular Cancer both ER + , turned out to be 2 x larger ILC tumours.
This just meant they were able to guide my targeted therapies according, but I wouldn’t have been starting on those until after my surgery and full histology results anyway, so try not to worry about the timing of your results now.
I know it’s hard but just rest up, stay healthy, see friends and try to laugh and relax, batch cook, and order a v pillow and wedge pillow for post surgery recovery…that was the best advice I got on this site !
Sending lots of love xx
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Thank you. I am reading more and more stories of things being diagnosed as much worse after the initial extraction. I hope as mine is grade 3, that things are now growing too fast while I wait.
I feel for everyone who’s experiencing this and hope they have the support they need.
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I know it’s so hard to not focus on the worst case scenario , but the full diagnosis may not necessarily be a worse diagnosis, just means the adjunctive treatment can be more target to the specific cancer.
I really hope you are getting the support you need right now, the wait between diagnosis and treatment is definitely the worst time for anxiety. Xx
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Hi, when the lab test your tumours HER2 status the first and only test for most breast cancers is a IHC test. If it comes back 0 or +1 it is classed as negative, if it comes back as +3 it’s HER2 positive. However if it comes back as IHC +2 it’s borderline and then undergoes a further test known as a Fish. This test determines which group a IHC+2 cancers will fit in ethier Her2 positive or negative. If negative the Her2 drugs will not be effective on your cancer and therefore different drugs and treatment plan is planned as it will be more effective for your cancer. This may be the reason why your HER2 test is taking longer. My breast cancer was IHC+2 and equivocal on ISh ( which means HER2 negative). A treatment plan can’t be given until this result is know. I also had a long wait for my HER2 result. At the time I didn’t understand why but now I do.
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I had a grade 3 hormone positive tumor. My surgery date wasn’t until almost five weeks after I was diagnosed but it hadn’t grown any that we could detect after pathology results came back. Even aggressive hormone positive tumors are relatively speaking still rather slow. If you end up coming back HER2+ that’s a different story somewhat BUT it’s also the most responsive of breast tumors now treatment wise. The immunotherapy for it is fantastic. Triple positive tumors statistically speaking seem to have the best prognosis out of all breast cancers now.
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That’s very reassuring thank you. Everything crossed. I’ve got a TAG placement booked next week.