Tumor Invasion to Pectoral Muscle?
My tumor was in a very strange location- practically IN the cleavage- I mean, looking at the MRI it's right on top of the sternum (coming from the right breast) and was anchored there like a barnacle. MRI showed pectoral muscle and skin invasion (as I had a huge indent at the edge of my sternum as a symptom, then mammnogram and ultrasound missed it…).
22mm tumor and tumor in the pectoral muscle tissue after excision (no clean margins and he couldn't cut out anymore, as it is, cut out 60mm x 60mm x 30mm). Incision goes completely across my sternum through both breasts so he could close the wound. Very strange.
Just met with the radiation oncologist so going to do regular (lower dose) radiation with boost at the tumor site, probably about 6 weeks altogether. Meeting with the chemo/hormone oncologist next week will likely say no to both. Took Femara for 2 weeks prior to surgery. No, will not do that, no way, have heard the other drugs are about the same. Only reduces absolute risk by about 5 percent, side effects just not worth it for me. Same with chemo, this tumor very slow growing, chemo doesn't do much for slow growing cell (very low rate of mitosis). I live in Taiwan, they don't do tumor genetic testing.
But, the one or two medical papers I could find about invasion into the pectoral muscle and tumor cells in the muscle said the women had recurrence so not optimistic. Still wouldn't make me do chemo or hormones. Not sure why they will do whole breast radiation but, whatever. If things get too bad, I will stop that as well. More interested in quality of life than extending by a few years but being in pain.
Would very much like to hear from others with pectoral muscle involvement and tumor cells in the margin after excision. Did they do anything special regarding radiation (if you did that)? I also had some random spots on my spine during a whole body MRI so going in September for a spinal MRI to rule out metastatis.