Lymph Notes

Even though we were scheduled to meet with Dr. Tchou this afternoon for a post-op appointment, she called early this morning to deliver the test results from the pathology report performed after surgery. Why was she calling when we would see her in a few hours? Was she preparing us for bad news?

But the news was good...well, mostly good. The lymph nodes they removed showed no indication that the cancer had spread. This was very good news since lymph node involvement is an important factor in determining the stage of the cancer. The bad news: Dr. Tchou was unable to get "clean margins" of normal tissue around the edges of the tumor during the surgery. This means there are still some cancer cells in the breast tissue and, possibly the chest muscle, that have to be removed. Another surgery (on June 3rd) will now be required to "re-excise" the incision to get the remaining cancer around the tumor site.

The pathology report also revealed that the tumor was a bit smaller than first estimated...coming in at about 1.2 centimeters (not 1.5 cm). That's smaller than an M&M. Is this significant? Not much.

So now that the doctor knows the tumor size and the results of the lymph node biopsy, she can determine the stage of the cancer. And the determination: Stage 1. This is great news since this is considered an early stage breast cancer.

But unfortunately, none of this means Karen can call off the impending chemo treatments. The excitement over the early stage assignment is tempered by her worrisome "triple negative" diagnosis. Despite the small size of the tumor and the lack of cancer in the lymph nodes, chemo is required treatment for patients with "triple negative" cancer like Karen's (see posting "The bad news...if there is any bad news").