Tumour Deposits

https://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/about-bowel-cancer/diagnosis/staging-and-grading/

Hi ,

Our helpline staff would be happy to talk this through with you .

The above is a link to a stagings leaflet which helps with some .

R0 means all disease has been surgically removed ( I think ) in terms of pathology margins . Nothing they can see . 
V1 is the level of venous invasion they saw on the pathology inspection .

As you will see Vascular invasion and moderately diff are pretty common around here and covered in the staging info .

The tumour deposit could be anywhere but the one thing to remember this is a pathology report so all could be potentially removed . So please don’t be alarmed just yet !!

We are inclined to interpret the gaps and that’s where we need the team of professionals.

Its a jigsaw they piece together and can be really useful to see if chemotherapy would be helpful but not always helpful unless we know the context .

Also I could honestly have some of it wrong as I am no medic just trying to help you .

Please phone our team on 0808 808 0000 they will be much more accurate .

Take care ,

1. Court 

Hi VJS1985. I think PN1 means there are 1-3 lymph nodes affected - the P bit means that it has been confirmed by the pathological findings. Don’t know about the L bit so maybe ring the support desk as Court suggests? x

Thanks Karen I will edit that ! I was doing it as I was running out the door . Court x 

Thanks for that x 

Hi VJS1985, I hope you’re recovering from surgery ok. 
I’m pretty sure V1 refers to venous invasion, as said before.  L1 I think means that lymphatic vessel invasion has been found (cancer cells in the vessels of the lymphatic system) and PN1 means that there is perineuronal invasion (cancer cells in the spaces around neurons).  All three mean that it is more likely that you are stage 3 rather than stage 2.  The R0 means ‘clear margins’: no cancer cells were found close to the boundary of the tissue that was removed.  
A tumor deposit means that tumor cells were found somewhere that was not a lymph node (found by the pathologist, so this automatically means they were removed!). In general, this is treated the same as a positive lymph node, so you’ll likely be offered chemotherapy. 

A little over a year ago I was in your position, with a very similar pathology report.  I remember the panic I felt at the time so we’ll… I’ve since had chemo and am doing fine. I hope you’ll be the same!

Wow thanks for that, I’m just waiting for my oncology apt, my incision site is still open after an infection I got 8 bloody weeks ago so that I believe is what the hold up will be, I got a copy of my medical records and the final stage of the tumour was pT3 pN2b (15/43) think that’s what that means so on august 17th I was offered 6 months CAPOX chemo, broke down when she told me, the tumour was more extensive than what was showed on the pre op imaging so that’s why it has to be 6 months, how are you doing, how was your chemo journey x 

My staging changed after surgery, too: the ct scan I had didn’t show the positive lymph nodes.  I found that hard to deal with, too.  
I only had 4 cycles of capox, and was lucky not to have too many side effects - for me, it certainly wasn’t as bad as I feared before the start of the first cycle.  
Do you have to wait for your wound to close before you can start chemo?

They haven’t actually told me anything yet which is rather upsetting it’s been nearly 4 weeks since I was told, I sent her photos of my wound but they never got back to me but colleagues I work with and a nurse on here said they wouldn’t be able to start it because of this open wound :( I feel like I’m in limbo right now, I know what needs to happen next I just need it to hurry up and happen x

Four weeks is a long time, and I think it’s strange no one got back after you sent pictures of your wound.  Do you have a number you can call to enquire what the plan is?

I see my surgeon consultant Wednesday so will hold out until then, I feel more comfortable asking him than I do my specialist nurse and if he doesn’t know I’ll pop on down to oncology myself, I need some answers x