Questions for 2WW APPOINTMENT

What is a 2 WW appointment? I’ve not heard of that before. 

My gp referral for the initial tests on the cancer pathway - I think it means 2 week wait, the time you should be seen within

Ah I see apologies. 

Just going back to your question, questions to ask would vary really depending on what your situation is. So have you found a lump and waiting for referral to the breast clinic for a mammogram and ultrasound now? The breast nurses are really helpful and will go through everything with you and provide leaflets. I found it was only afterwards I thought of questions. They will take a biopsy at that appointment and then you’d go back for the results of that. 

I hope you are feeling ok xx

Hi Mel_on , good idea to prepare a list of questions and obv take paper and pen to make notes. Or make notes on your phone but I’m better with pen and paper. So I think in my case I was told everything I wanted to know at that stage, including the type of breast cancer, estimated size of the tumour, and proposed treatments. I was happy to accept all that was offered - surgery (lumpectomy and sentinel node sampling), radiotherapy and long term hormone therapy. But if I had the same situation on my other breast, I’d ask, do I have the option to have a mastectomy and avoid radiotherapy. Just to know if there was a choice. 
So, depending on your results, you could ask, ‘for my situation are there different possible options for treatment which offer the same outcome?’ That’s really all I can think of! But others may have other questions to ask.
My overall checklist would be: type, size, grade of tumour; proposed treatments and whether any other options; timescale of proposed treatments. 
Good luck on the 2nd! Love and hugs, HFxx 

I would also ask if there are any other tests which may need to be done first which could delay the start of your treatment. Hopefully not, but I think it’s better to know. x 

Thankyou x

Thankyou, they’re all good questions xx 

If the lump is suspicious, they will probably tell you that, but they won’t be able to give you much information about it until biopsy results are back. They grade the level of suspicion from 1 to 5, so you should be able to find out how suspicious it is. Plus the size and also whether they are concerned about lymph nodes. Biopsy will identify grade - how similar are the cells to normal cells where grade 1 is the slowest growing and grade 3 the fastest. Biopsy will also identify whether the tumour has receptors for oestrogen, progesterone and/or human growth hormone. These tell them how to treat you. Depending on what they find, they may arrange other tests. 

You should be given a follow up appointment, if not, find out how and when they will arrange it, and whether they expect all results to be back at that appointment.

Hi again  Mel_on , sorry I think the heat is getting to me…. The questions I’ve listed are what I’d ask at the results appointment, not the initial clinic one! Too much to ask when they don’t know themselves at that point what the nature of the beast is. Sorry for my confusion! Xx

Thankyou x