Hello to you all lovely warriors,
It’s my first time posting in here after the new bad news i received last may. Hope you could through some light on this because as you may suppose i’m having a really bad time at the moment.
I was dx with breast cancer five years ago. Stage 3. Got mx, chemo, rads, and tamoxifen afterwards. When i was starting to “forget” all the suffering i’d been going throught at that time the shock come again.
On 21th may they told me i got a 0.8cm lump on my “good” breast. I told them i wanted to get a mx of the breast and last week i got it done.
What worries me now is that they have found micromets in the sentinel node, but the did not perform the full axilary node clearance as they did the other time. Surgeon told us that nowadays they do not remove them if there’re only micromets and that doing a full clearance in such situation is “overtreat” patients.
I’m really afraid of my tumor cells spreading anywhere else. The other time i got a full clearance done because a couple of nodes where affected but now i’m confunsed and very frightened.
In a couple of weeks i have a new appointment with the doctors and they will tell me about the rest of the treatment, but i would like to know your thoughts so i can clear up a bit my mind to ask the right questions.
Many thanks in advance and sorry for my spelling and bad english (i’m fron spain)
Hello everdream (great name),
I am sorry that you have received a second diagnosis of breast cancer, but glad the tumour was so small and that you only had micro-mets in the sentinal node.
I too have had breast cancer twice, first in 2009 and then again in 2012. Both times triple negative and lymph node involvement, but second time I was told that I would have rads or lymph clearance, not both as in 2012. These things are complicated and will no doubt depend on grade of tumour and whether its hormone positive etc.
If you are worried, go back and ask again about this issue.
As an aside, although I had one node involved and clearance showed no others involved and then went on to develop lymphodema. Right now, your immiediate concern and fear is the cancer but the lymphodema has a massive impact on my life and so I would say that in light of this high risk, to give weight to the need to avoid over-treatment.
It is a scarey time, but you do get through it, as you did the first time.
Rattles x
Hi everdream and Rattles, I too have micro Mets, I was diagnosed in May and had a WLE and SNB. I am going in on Thursday for another WLE as the margins were not clear. I was offered full clearance of my axilla or radiotherapy. Was told the same as you both so was agonising over what to do!!! I have decided not to go for clearance although part of me still thinks “get em out!” Thank you for sharing this, as I haven’t seen many comments regarding this this, it really helps to hear about someone with the same worries as yourself. I think eventually, this will be standard practice for micro Mets, don’t think it helped me by giving me a choice to be honest. Hope all goes well with you both, keep up the fight!!!
Pattyp
The thing in my case is that the surgeon did not offer me the chance of doing a full clearance or rads. He just pointed that nowadays it is not neccesary to do so if they’re micromets. I don’t really know if i should trust his words…
Hi ladies,
I had my mx in May 2013 and initial sentinal node in the biopsy during mx showed clear however my pathology showed that a node in the breast had cancer in it but there was a micromet of 0.4mm in the sentinal node. I was given bone scan, mri, ct and offered the chance to have a clearance of level 1 and 11. I got the all clear on all the scans and chose to have the clearance op. They took 14 nodes and all 14 were clear. My consultant said I could leave it if I wanted to as chemo and rads “could” get it. For me there was no other choice, it was always get them out.
The mx was a walk in the park compared to the ALNC op as that hurt like hell and I also suffered with cording and I am still having physio now however the op gave me peace of mind. I think that some hospitals offer, some leave it and some say no; it shouldn’t be like that but it is.
So despite feeling that I have had more scans, tests and op’s than enough I am very grateful that I have been given these as it has helped me not to be so scared and has definately put my mind at rest as I know that they checked. Some people would see my op as being “not needed” but for me I am happy I chose to have it.
Naz
x
Hi Everdream
I am just pasting below a reply to a post from pattyp on an earlier thread as it is probably still relevant to your situation. It is a very personal decision and although we can offer advice and support on the forum, the decision rests with you and even harder I guess because you have been dx with breast cancer for the second time.
In the same camp as PG above, I can’t tell you which option to choose but I can tell you what happened to me.
Was dx in May 2006 whilst 30 weeks pregnant. ER- PR+, Her2+ and Grade 3. Just before surgery the surgeon told me that if any traces of cancer were found in the nodes then I would have to have a second op to remove them. After surgery I was told I had 2 micromets in my sentinel node. It was the surgeon’s decision not to carry out an ANC, I really didn’t have a say in it to be honest (whether that had anything to do with being pregnant at the time ie another quick surgery I don’t know as I have no medical background) so I had chemo and then rads followed by Herceptin and Tamoxifen. His advice completely contradicted what he had said on dx but I put my faith and life in his hands and trusted him.
At the time I was scouring the internet looking for information and came across various trials. I thought there would have been more advances/information available 7 years down the line though and I am amazed that this still appears to be a grey area.
I had no choice but to have chemo being Grade 3 but I remember my onc telling me that some oncs treat micromets as node negative whereas others will err on the side of caution and treat as node positive. Mine decided on the cautious approach and treated me as node positive which then enabled me to have Taxotere as part of my chemo protocol - not sure if it has changed since the passage of time but in 2006 Tax was only given if you were node positive.
If you dig about in the archives on this site I am sure you will come across various threads on micromets - some of the posts from me probably! I hope some of the information from other users helps in your decision making.
Best wishes and keep us posted on how you are getting on. Love xxxx