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Hormone status different after surgery?

dancemom
dancemom Member Posts: 407

Not sure where to ask this. Has anyone heard of hormone status change between the initial biopsy and the surgery? I found info on it possibly changing on mets, but this pathology was done on the breast tissue. The original biopsy pathology was er+ pgr + her-. I did 6 months of treatment, then had surgery. The pathology now says er+ pgr- her-. Did the treatment change it?

I see my surgeons next week, and my MO the following, so I'll ask then. I'm just trying to figure out what I should ask.

Comments

  • 1982m
    1982m Member Posts: 224
    edited January 2022

    I have heard about this- did you have a low pr to start with? Not all tumour cells have all the same tumour markers and sometimes treatments work better on certain cells.

    From my understanding this is how it may work-What happened is the cells 1) you had low pr positive cells to stay with (let's say 25% of cells expressed PR and 75% didn't). Let's say your tumour shrunk 80%. The remaining cells are more likely to be pr negative. It’s not necessary that the cells themselves changed but that those who were previously PR positive responded better to treatment? Or perhaps the cells that didn’t have PR could continue to replicate during treatment? I know this happens with Her2 as well.

    Wishing you well.



  • dancemom
    dancemom Member Posts: 407
    edited January 2022

    thanks, that could make sense. I see MO next week, so hopefully there will be some treatment decisions.

  • moth
    moth Member Posts: 3,293
    edited January 2022

    yes. Some tumors are not homogeneous. I was initially coded as er+/pr-/her2-

    There is also some oncologists who theorize the tumor continues to evolve and some evolutionary pressures during treatment might be causing a change in tumor characteristics