Micrometastases

Hi 

Warm welcome to the club no one wants to join, sorry to read about your BC diagnosis but you have picked a good number (1) and found us 

Micromets are very small clusters of random cells that have been trapped by your lymphnodes. Great!  that is what they are meant to do to stop them travelling elsewhere.

I stole this nugget of info from breast cancer care which explains it better.........

Your doctor may use one of these terms when discussing your sentinel lymph node biopsy result.
    •    ITCs are single cancer cells or small clusters of cells no bigger than 0.2mm.
    •    Micrometastases are cancer cells larger than 0.2mm but not bigger than 2mm.
    •    Macrometastases are cancer cells larger than 2mm.
If you’re diagnosed with ITCs or micrometastases, you will not usually need any further treatment to your axilla (under the arm).
If you have one or two sentinel nodes with macrometastases, you may or may not need further treatment to your axilla.

So basically they are saying if Macro they would probably remove more nodes, but with Micro they can zap the axilla area with radiotherapy.

Do you know from pathology any other info about your removed tissue ? like if it is ER/PR+ positive or HER2+ positive as this can be a guide as to your ongoing treatments. Oncology doesn't always just refer to chemo, onco covers radiotherapy too.

Hope this is of some help,take care, G n' J

Good morning Dreamthief.....I am so pleased you spotted SVB's question because when I saw it last night I knew you would have the explanations to hand. Actually I found it very interesting too. There is so much to learn about this disease and so many variables......I do try to take this into account when I reply to some of the very anxious  posts which understandably appear but worry about how easy it can be to make things worse......

I'm so pleased you're enjoying your Welsh adventure . We are off on our holidays in the next hour.....three weeks in the south, close to Collioure and the Spanish border. I am so looking forward to the break......it has been a busy summer....building alterations, elderly parents and ongoing medical problems that I am ready to run away......

Must go. Last minute packing. Love to all.

Karen

Hiya Karen / Lacomtekp

Yup, (too many variables) just breast cancer doesn't tell you much :-/

We are doing great thanks (7 years on) Just put together a summerhouse and are painting it Forget-Me-Not blue before the Welsh weather breaks - meant to be 24C here today

Hope you have a great, well deserved break at the bay

Hugs, G n' J

Hi SVB2019,

I had a Grade 2 BC, so I had a Mastectomy as it was 5CM, followed by chest wall radiotherapy as I had a positive inferior margin, I wouldn't have been offered the radiotherapy if the margins had been clear.  I had 2 out of 4 lymph nodes with micrometastases, I didn't get any treatment to the axilla after my initial surgery, I was told by the Surgeon the NICE guidelines state further surgery or treatment with radiotherapy should only be offered for macrometastases. 

Please update us once you have had your appointment with Oncology. 

Best Wishes. 

Hi SVB,

Your medical team will put together a plan depending on your circumstances, to give you the best treatment.

I had stage 1 cancer. Diagnosed last October and at the time, my surgeon said that she thought that I would have surgery and radiotherapy only. I was very hopeful that the main part of treatment would be finished by Christmas. Then the results came back that one lymph node had a micrometastasis, grade 3 and oestrogen, progesterone and her2 positive. My oncologist strongly encouraged me to have chemotherapy. He said that without it, the cancer may return, with chemotherapy and herceptin, the chance of a recurrence would be very low and they would expect that I’d be cured (no one will ever be able to give you a definite answer). 

Your results may well be different to mine, but I just wanted you to be prepared that they may well treat it more aggressively than if all the nodes were clear. 

Best wishes,

Sarah 

Hey peterawake,

I have had one of my lymph nodes removed and I was told by my surgeon that I won't require any further treatment. I have an appointment with the Oncologist on Monday where I hope to clear all my doubts-especially about micrometastases. I will definitely keep you updated about the outcome of the appointment.

Thank you,

SVB

Hey Sarah,

thank you for the warning as I assumed that since the surgeon had told me that I won't be needing chemotherapy I would be getting radio therapy. I don't have to wait long to find out as my appointment is on Monday!

Take care

SVB

hey Dreamthief,

Thanks a lot for replying to my query so clearly, it made me feel so much better! I wasn't getting much information on this subject from any source. I haven't seen the pathology report as yet but am meeting with the oncologist tomorrow so hopefully all will be clear.

I had sent you this message from my phone earlier but looks like it just didn't go through.

Take care,

SVB

Hey peterawake,

I met with the oncologist today and she adviced to get an oncotype test which examines the activities of genes in the tumour tissue.  This would guide them to make a more personalised treatment as it helps them calculate recurrence rate I think- all this is new to me and I'm still trying to understand it. The results will take at least 2 weeks so the wait begins yet again... I will keep you informed about any new developments.

Take care,

SVB

Hi 

Quite a few ladies have had the Oncotype test to see what benefits having or not having chemo would give.

The recurrence risk score is divided into 3 areas,

You can check out the Oncotype FAQ here. Results Graph below.

G n' J