Enlarged lymph nodes not cancerous?

Hi Leighsp. Yes infection can cause the lymph nodes to swell - see below. I think you’ll just have to put your trust in the surgeons and once the tumour is in the bin then they’ll confirm the staging. Yes no spread is good news

www.macmillan.org.uk/.../bowel-cancer-and-the-lymphatic-system

Thank you Karen! Do you know what the MRI would show with rectal cancer, and what ‘clear’ means? I’m going to have a discussion with the doctor (he’s currently on annual leave) so hoping to clear up answers then, but do you know it shows if the polyp/tumour has started to spread through the bowel wall? X

Hi Leighsp. The ‘clear’ bit means that there is no spread to other organs which is good. From my mri they told me that the tumour had spread into the bowel walk but not through it and they suspected that 2 lymph nodes were affected. The histology report after surgery showed that 17 lymph nodes were removed and 2 were affected so I was stage 3. My friend was same initially staging but the histology showed no affected lymph nodes so she was stage 2.

www.macmillan.org.uk/.../staging-and-grading-of-bowel-cancer

Kareno62 thank you, like you say I will just have to trust the experts! At the end of the day they know a lot more than me.. plus if the whole MDT agreed tems was the best way forward I will have to look at this as a good sign. Surely they wouldn’t want to waste time with this procedure if they believed the nodes could be affected! Hoping they are able to bring this forward to the 26th xx

My mum’s were called “reactionary “ on the scan prior to starting treatment . My understanding back then was they may react to the cancer being present but not necessarily invaded by cancer . After pathology she had no signs of active cancer cells in her lymph nodes but I was not quick enough to ask if there was such a think as dead cancer cells ??

Good news for you . Fantastic result so far and onwards to getting this resolved .

Court 

court thank you, despite my fear it really is good news and seems promising that we have caught this early! So keen now to get in and get this taken out of me, and then we can have a better picture xxx

Hi leighsp, 

I hope you dont mind me messaging, as I see your experiences all happened over a year ago but I'm struggling to get some peoes experiences with the TEMS proceedure. Your experience is very similar to mine. Rectal polyp with high and low grade dysplasia. I'm booked in for 08th January and was wondering if you could give me some words of wisdom. Re: proceedure, recovery, how long you were in hospital etc. Hope you are all recovered and looking at the whole experience in the rear view mirror. 

Regards gosh 

Hi Gosh 

Just going to tag in Leighsp  for you . They will get an email sent this way. .

Take care ,

Court 

Thank you Court! 

Hi Gosh 

I opted for the LAR surgery in the end rather than TEMS. I was referred to a different surgeon after my diagnosis as he could perform TEMs, he did further biospsies and these cells were more suspicious of cancer. I was given an option of tem or LAR by the MDT and after consideration I went straight for the surgery. Pathology came back cancerous T1 stage 1 but there is every chance I would’ve been fine with just the tem but as im a naturally anxious person I thought it would be best to go for the surgery.

in the end I’m glad I opted for LAR even though recovery after stoma reversal is difficult. Happy to answer any questions and hope all goes well with it :) x