Stage II w/Lymph Node Involvement
Comments
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balsie, please check out this article. Never heard of the stuff until right now, and I was reading about DIM on the forum and it seems some people are calling it the same thing as indole-3-carbinol. I googled indole-3-carbinol (as you can imagine googling "DIM" came up with everything under the sun.)
It appears they are not the same thing and there is a caution with the indole-3 stuff, at least according to this article. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't draw attention to it, though all I know at this point is what I'm reading there. I would definitely stay away from indole-3 based on the article though, and go after the DIM.
http://www.bioresponse.com/Real-Facts-on-Safety-13C-vs-DIM.asp?gclid=CJ-04IeRw60CFYKK4AodWmk1jg
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balsie, please check out this article. Never heard of the stuff until right now, and I was reading about DIM on the forum and it seems some people are calling it the same thing as indole-3-carbinol. I googled indole-3-carbinol (as you can imagine googling "DIM" came up with everything under the sun.)
It appears they are not the same thing and there is a caution with the indole-3 stuff, at least according to this article. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't draw attention to it, though all I know at this point is what I'm reading there. I would definitely stay away from indole-3 based on the article though, and go after the DIM.
http://www.bioresponse.com/Real-Facts-on-Safety-13C-vs-DIM.asp?gclid=CJ-04IeRw60CFYKK4AodWmk1jg
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Read this also.
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I have not read the above mentioned articles.
But I have been taking DIM since late September at the recommendation of my complementary medicine doctor. My onc referred me to her and I really like her. She's conservative (didn't put me on a dozen supplements) and she said if I can only afford to take three supplements, to take Vit D, Turkey Tail and Dim.
I take a few other things on my own.0 -
cp418, you are most welcome! Just wondering if you are BRCA+?
There is a link between BRCA mutations and PanCan.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good news from you!
Warmly,
Marcia0 -
pejkug3-can you take the DIM or Turkey tail with Tamoxifen or an AI?
Tori
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Tori - Yes, you can take boths DIM and Turkey Tail with Tamoxifen. I don't know about with an AI. My complementary doc told me to be very careful with supplements because of the Tamoxifen interacting with many different things. (Like St. John's Wort)
I buy Nature's Way DIM Plus and Swanson Turkey Tail....both on Amazon (but you have to pay shipping on both...$4.99/each)0 -
Soccermom- No, I am not BRCA positive as tested last year. I have an appt tomorrow at the Pancreatic Cancer Center NYC that you referred to in your earlier post. I can't thank you enough for that link. It is a different website than the NY Presbyterian Hospital website which also describes Pancreatic services. This is where I was getting confused because they do seem to share services like Laboratory and scanning I believe. Sounds like a mega complex of teaching/research affiliated with Cornell and Columbia Universities. My MRCP scan finally got approved for this Friday. I'm just hoping the pain in my right lower back side is gall bladder or something. I usually take my 1-2 mile walk in the early morning but did not feel up to it today. Hoping this cyst is not the cause because it was so small when found in early November. I was so hoping 2012 would be a smoother year than 2011. Hugs Joann
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One year ago today ladies I was in the infusion room for my first dance with the red devil. Makes me shiver just thinking about it! I wonder at what point I will stop thinking about BC on a daily basis?
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That will be my day next Wednesday, Jan 18.
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cp,
just wanted to let you know that I am glad to have helped! I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope to hear good news from you!
Marcia
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Hi ladies I have a question that is bugging me for days and I have my surgery on Feb 1st. I have a 3cm tumor mixed duct lobular tumor stage II w/ lymph invasion on my right breast and on my left I have displasia ? (not sage 0 yet) I decided to do bi mastectomy because I have been told the changes of returning after lumpectomy is higher and that my breast are prone plus on the visual side I know I wouldn't be happy to see my breasts un even. My other question is that my doctor newly announced that will do sentinel nodes on my left (not stage 0) because I'll be removing the breast and wouldn't be able to know later. Is it really necessary? is it a drastic prophylactic measure? I wish I would save my left breast and do a lumpectomy but I am scare to have to go back and redo everything again... Please help!
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IMO.. I would not have the SNB on the non-cancer side. I had ADH 14 years ago, lumpectomy and that is it... Then 13 years later I had cancer on that side and a micromet in SN... If I had had the SNB back 14 years ago it would have been clean. So why risk the lymphedema... I would say to the doctor that he can inject the dye, and IF he finds more than the dysplasia on the left then he can do a SNB, but otherwise no... Dysplasia is not cancer, it is just abnormal cells that could become cancer.
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January 2010, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had stage 2 DCIS, 10-12 centimeter tumor, 5 positive nodes out of 24 removed. From the online sources I have read, my tumor size might have pushed me into stage 3, but my onc said no.
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Hi stephani 1 I was diagnosed in 2009 with IDC stage 11 lymphnodes removed on both sides left 14 and 12 positive right 21 and 17 positive both breast start the same time i am in remmision on Tamoxifen.Need some info?In Jan2012 i was diagnosed with pink eyes (Virus) my right arm start swelling was diagnosed with cellulits arm still swelling dont know why drainage after x-ray no problems under my skin on the effected arm 2 fat glands pop out doc said its nothing to be concern.My blood markers in Jan2012 fine we done the test again lastweek marker up from 9 to 57,what i want to know can this high marker make me sick i am nausia for 3 days now,headace,dissyness,stomach pain and got some diaree this morning.Thankyou Marlé0
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Melly.. I am confused... How can you have stage II DCIS?? You must have something invasive or it wouldn't have been in your nodes... DCIS is contained, IDC is invasive.
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bdavis-
My final pathology report does not mention IDC, it states DCIS, reading through BreastCancer.orgs write up about this, you are, of course, right. In previous pathology reports, they mention lobular invasive carcenoma.
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I always shake my head when I see women post "... thank God my lymph nodes were clear..." Breast cancer cells can spread in many ways; through the lymph nodes is only one way. Just because they had no lymph node involvement, doesn't mean that they are not at risk for metastasis or they are completely "safe".
My oncologist explained that lymph node status - while still important - is not as vital once the lump grows over 2cm. Once that lump is larger than 2cm, they KNOW that it begins shedding cancer cells. If there are no cancer cells in the lymph nodes, that doesn't mean that the cancer isn't trying to spread through some other means, bypassing the lymphatic system entirely. So "clear lymph nodes" doesn't always mean "all clear".
Thankfully, my Sentinal Node was doing it's job catching cancer cells and preventing those cells from travelling farther up the lymph chain. It's an odd way of looking at it, I know.0 -
SelenaWolf, that's exactly how I look at it. My Sentinal Node and the one beside it were cancerous, but the other 6 that were removed were clear. I believe the Sentinal node did it's job!
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Sometimes, ya just gotta be realistic... Being positive and optimistic is so important - no doubt about that - but if it clouds the truth of the matter, I can't see how that helps. I'm trying to be both positive and realistic. My prognosis is very good. I've been very, very lucky. Cancer-free, hopefully. Cured, I am not.
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I had a different experience. Of 4 sentinal nodes, only #1 and #3 were involved with micromets. In other words, the cancer hit the first node and skipped over the next one. Guess my CA didn't have a solid game plan. Glad the nodes caught it.
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In my case, the first sentinal node was clear.......it was the second that had a micromet in it. The other 12 that my BS took were clear. She told me before the surgery that sometimes the cancer plays hop-scotch in the nodes. Was disappointed though as the ultra sound couldn't find anything and I was so hoping for no node involvement.
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gentianviolet...I so relate. Several USs, an MRI and 3 mammos never saw any node involvement. The day of my surgery a radiologist, who had just done the last US and mammo, came to the waiting room and told my husband he was SURE there were no nodes involved. What a horrible surprise I woke up to.
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Yep. All the way through testing no signs of node involvement... All discussions were around simple surgery, minimal chemo and breast only rads. We didn't even have my single node checked during surgery since we'd all decided to go with the very new protocol of no ALND even if micromets.
Goodness knows how the 6mm macromet with extra-capsular extension and vascular involvement hid from everyone until the pathology came back!
What a shock at my follow-up surgery appt to suddenly move to "oh, do you think you want an ALND "tomorrow" and now we're going to do major chemo and we'd like to burn the heck out of you too.
Took a chance and said no to the ALND based on stats and follow-up CT and bone scans. Doing the chemo. Have agreed to the rads to breast and axilla, but have refused the supra-clavicular rads (again taking my chance on stats).
Jenn0 -
Jenn... Same sort of thing for me... but mine was a micromet... I did not have the ALND (doctors said it was not necessary) and had 6 tx of chemo.. then chose to skip rads altogther and have BMX instead... again all doctors said rads was not necessary with the MX.
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These situations all sound ths same as mine. Had 2 mammos, ultrasound, MRI and never thought there would be node involvement, but surgen took sentinel nodes anyway per procedure. Grabbed 9 nodes and 3 were found to be involved, 3mm and below in size. It was an emotional shock and has been a roller coaster ride. I hate looking at the statistics. They always bring me down. I went from stage I to 2A. But, at the same time, as a stage I, I kept wondering what mroe I could do to prevent recurrence. By having the lymph nodes involved I was assured to have chemo (done) - which in my mind is one more step in trying to prevent return. I'm now half way through radiation and looking forward to getting back to my life.
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I could have typed many of the posts myself in reference to the node involvement. I had US, biopsies, MRI's, etc.... I was stage 0, MAYBE early stage I going into my BMX.... had 3 sentinel nodes taken during surgery.... found out a week later when my pathology came back that it was in one of those nodes. I just got done with 6 rounds of TAC right before Christmas...now that i'm done with chemo, i'm glad i did it.... i am confident that I threw everything I had at this beast.... now i'm on tamoxifen and hoping to never stare a recurrence in the face.
Cancer is stupid!!!!!
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We have to remember that the screening- and diagnostic test we have are limited in their ability to detect cancer. We're told that screening programmes will help us detect cancer sooner, when it can be dealt with, but it isn't until good, old-fashioned pathology is carried out can we have the best idea of what is going on in our bodies.
Because my mother had breast cancer, I had been enrolled in a screening programme at the age of 35. Every two years, I had a mammogram. Every time, the results came back "negative"... right up until the mammogram done a few months before I found an approximately 2cm lump in my left breast during a self exam. And I, almost, missed the lump because it was deep in the tissue! Yep, the mammogram missed it. And, since my oncologist told me that it takes roughly 6-8 years for breast cancer to grow into a big enough lump to be felt, at least THREE mammograms missed it in the very, very early stages.
Even, my diagnostic mammogram - done after my finding the lump and with special markers attached to my skin - couldn't quite make out anything definite. A digital ultrasound did better; it found the mass and a large calcification, but the radiologist still said that it only looked suspicious; he couldn't tell for sure that it was definitely malignant. Moreover, the ultrasound on my underarm indicated that my lymph nodes were "clinically negative". A core biopsy, finally, revealed the lump was cancerous.
It tooks all the tests COMBINED to reach my diagnosis, but - even then - I wasn't entirely in the clear. My surgeon said that I was an excellent candidate for a lumpectomy because the tests revealed that I had only one lump, but he admitted that he wouldn't know for sure what we were dealing with until he got in there and had a good look around. There was a chance that - if he didn't like what he saw - I would come out of surgery with a mastectomy and an AND.We have to admit that our medical tests for breast cancer screening- and diagnosis are fallible. They are not accurate and they do miss things. We can't relax when we're told we have a "clear" mammogram; we have to keep up with our self-exams and push-push-pushing for better,more accurate tests. It's one of the reasons why I get so angry/afraid when I hear people say that breast cancer can be cured or that it can be "managed" like a chronic disease. To me, that screams "complacency" and we, as women, cannot grow complacent about this. We need better tests. We need prevention. We need a cure.
Sorry. This tends to be my particular soapbox... Rant over, shutting up now.0 -
Up until now I have held information gathering at arms length and didn't really want to know too much. I don't understand statistics and means properly, so I don't look at them because I don't want to put bad information in my mind and then obsess about it. I do however want to know more about my cancer, what the salient details are and what I should keep aware of. Where do I start? I have Susan Loves Book. I know and like this web site. It is well past time that I figure out my place in the world of cancer and what I need to know. Help?
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My best advice would be to start with your Pathology Report and your oncologist. The internet is tricky; for every study saying one thing, there is another study saying the exact opposite. One study will say chemo for node negative breast cancer; another will say not always necessary. Survival- and recurrence rates will be all-over-the-place depending on the study- and/or website. Horror stories abound: chemo kills; no it doesn't; radiation causes cancer; no it doesn't. It's very confusing- and, often, hard to sort through because - frankly - we're not doctors or specialists. Your oncologist is the best place to start, I think...
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