Stage changed to stage 2 A

aimeefox96

Now after meeting with radiation oncology (they couldn't do anything but talk to me due to I still need to meet with Hematology oncology and discuss chemotherapy options first) I was reading over my notes from the doctor and noticed that my stage is now Stage 2a, grade 2 ER & PR positive, HER2 negative, oncotype 23. Not sure why my stage changed or when

maggie15

@aimeefox96 , Your stage is determined by the surgical pathology. A tumor larger than 2 cm or nodal involvement could move you from an estimated biopsy stage 1b to a post surgical 2a. Since a biopsy is a small sample it is not that unusual to have different surgical pathology. I went from stage 0 (1.6 cm DCIS) to stage 2a (3.2 cm IDC, 1/3 nodes: micromets.)

If you do chemo you will have radiation afterward. Good luck with your treatment!

kaynotrealname

I went from stage 1a to stage 2a because my tumor size was larger than anticipated after the surgical pathology report came back. However with the new staging system I just went up to 1b. Here's a research report describing the new system -

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315072/

melbo

I always recommend that new patients read the NCCN patient guidelines since they explain a lot of the terms that your doctors use.

https://www.nccn.org/patients/guidelines/content/PDF/breast-invasive-patient.pdf