Multi focal breast cancer

Hi Charlotte,  no,  it's not stage 4 (that's when it is beyond the lymph nodes and somewhere like bones,  liver etc). There are lots of types,  stages and grades of breast cancer,  which you only fully know about after surgery, but it's most likely either stage 2 or stage 3, depending on size of combined lumps measured and the number of nodes positive (if more than one).

There is also grade,  which values from grade 1 (slow growing), grade 2 (average) and grade 3 (faster than average). The types they look for are ER+ (hormone sensitive to oestrogen), PR+ (sensitive to progesterone) and HER2 positive. The cancer can also be negative to one or more of these, or positive to more than one of these.  The results will affect what drugs are used to help treat it, but your surgeon will only know the full story after your operation. mind changed from grade 2 to grade 1 and grade 2, and my 'clear' nodes had one positive node. 

If there are things you're unsure about could you call clinic and ask for one of the nurses to explain things again? Most hospitals have a designated macmillan nurse. 

You are at the worst part of the journey at the moment as you are waiting for tests and results.  It sounds like they are moving fairly quickly, so hopefully you'll know where you are next week. X

Thanks for all this info 

Hi - I was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer following routine mammogram.  I couldn’t feel any lumps but there ended up being about 4 different areas of cancer in my left breast and I also had 3 positive lymph nodes (these didn’t show up on MRI).It was stage 2.Since surgery I have had chemotherapy, radiotherapy and am now on hormone medication and doing well.Wishing you all the very best.xx

Thank you 

I am not coping well with the waiting for treatment. 

The waiting is very hard but when you know what the plan is and treatment starts you will be ok.Try to take one day at a time.I was really anxious about treatment but coped well and the time went really quickly.If you have any other questions don’t hesitate to ask.xx

Mine was diagnosed as multi focal after surgery. Pre surgery biopsies suggested DCIS high grade - ie pre cancerous. I didn’t feel any lumps. Turned out largest lump found post mastectomy was 3.5 mm so very small.Final report showed grade 2 stage pT1a pN0. So the consultant was quite positive about my future. So try not to worry too much as the term multi focal could be any stage and if CT scan didn’t show up then maybe that’s a good thing. Xx