3cm suspected malignant tumor

There are exercises too there pelvic floor. I searched for them last night. Coloplast have them online they sent me the booklet. Hopefully this is a link. 
www.coloplast.ca/.../HerniaGuide.pdf

Sorry Wil66 

I don’t know what that means they didn't tell me until January and I still don’t  know. Maybe phone your team or the nurses are lovely here. 
Try not to worry. once treatment starts concentrate on keeping well 

I not sure not had staging yet but found the Macmillan nurses help line helpful they explained my Colonoscopy report to me 

Morning Wil66. I’ve attached a link which explains about staging. 

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

TheT3’b’ relates to how far the tumour has grown into the orange layer on the diagram but the good bit is that it hadn’t gone out of the bowel and to other organs. I was the same staging but was never told if I was T3 a/b/c.

Take care

Karen x

Hi, so obviously there’s a caveat here that I’m not a doctor but this staging means as follows: 

T3b means your tumour has grown into the outer lining of your bowel but not through it. Most bowel cancer starts on the inside of your bowel and gradually grows through it. This is ranked between 1-4. The B bit just indicates how far into the outer bowel wall the tumour has grown. I think B means 1-3mm. 

N1 means there are cancer cells in some lymph nodes nearby to the tumour but not in any far away lymph nodes. 

M0 means the cancer ask NOT spread to any distant organs or other areas of the body. 

In a classic ‘numbers’ staging you are a Stage 3 based on the spread to local lymph nodes. But all my doctors have said to ignore the traditional numbers staging as the TNM staging is the gold standard for bowel cancer and relates a lot more accurately to what treatment you’ll need. 

Does that all make sense? I always find it useful to ask the specialist nurse if you have queries. I’ve found them super helpful even when asking really detailed questions. 

Sorry our messages crossed. I was told I was T2, then 3a then 3B all from the same scans! I asked the doctor what was going on and he exposed you’re dealing with a difference of 3mm on a scan and really emphasised that you don’t know for sure until it’s taken out and even then is more of academic interest rather than meaningful for outcomes. 

Hi . That’s a great reply and, as you say, it’s more to do with the treatment than sticking a number on it. The real staging is the histology one done after the tumour has been removed. My friend thought she had some lymph nodes affected and was all psyched up for chemo to find that there weren’t any and her treatment was finished. 

That’s what I was told. Plus I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to know. 
Mine was taken out August I had a letter January with the sizing and staging.

Yes Karen I expected chemo I was told it was a possibility but two weeks after op the nurse phoned to say stage two. Just watch and wait. It’s very individual. 

Yup. I find I want to know all the details about everything and the doctors keep telling me more stuff but emphasising which bits are and are not important. Surgeon and oncologist both said it’s really the N and M bits that matter and you don’t know the N but for certain until it’s out. 

There’s also other elements of the diagnosis like EMVI (which is either positive or negative) which seem to be more important than the exact detail of if a tumour is 1mm here or there. All this should be on your diagnosis letter and if it’s not just ask - I had no clue until I started peppering the doctors with questions. 

man’s sorry for all the typos - was in a taxi on the way to chemo!