Triple negative with possible secondary cancer in lung

Yes, I have had exactly this news, with two small differences -- I was told in no uncertain terms that I did have mets on the lungs, and that I was unlikely to see 2024. (About eleven months later it turned out they were wrong and I had no mets on the lungs at all.) 

Getting your head around it may take different paths for different people. For me, it was focusing on practicalities and taking back as much control as I could over any part of it. 

As spread to the lymphatic system is not necessarily life-limiting, so I am wondering why your oncologist said it would be when he is not certain it has gone any further. How are they going to verify or disprove their suspicion about the lungs?

Hi GreyCats,  thank you for your reply, they are going to monitor the shadow in my lung throughout treatment to see how it progresses, they said the treatment plan wouldn’t change if it was confirmed to be in my lung so no point doing more scans for now, he said even if it wasn’t on my lung it was life limiting as it’s in my lymphatic system, funnily enough my breast care nurse said if it wasn’t on my lung it was still potentially “cureable”   
how are you doing now? Have you had more treatment? I’ve had chemo & mastectomy & hopefully my cancer will be responsive to immunotherapy, which I should find out next week, then I’ll have that combined with more chemo. 

This is interesting. Normally I tend to go with the oncologist as he is the specialist, but in this case I am inclined to go with the nurse. Either way, you are being given contradictory information by the oncologist and the nurse, so I would ask for clarification. 

This is from a reliable American website. Do a search on the page for "lymph" and it will take you to what I was talking about. The only difference would be if the spread is to lymph nodes which are not nearby, so perhaps the first question to ask about your situation is, "which lymph nodes are affected?" Here is the link: 

https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/breast-cancer/statistics 

Thank you, I prefer the outlook from the nurse! I’ll speak to her on Monday, I hoped I’d wake up & it was all a very bad dream, clearly not. x

Hi, can I just ask what he means by in lymphatic system? I had 7/14 lymph nodes positive and both oncologists I have seen, 1 for chemo and 1 to discuss radio, both said cureable x

Hi, yes I initially had this diagnosis, had  chemo then full lymph clearance & mastectomy, unfortunately my cancer has returned in the lymph nodes in my chest & towards my collar bone area, so different to where yours is in your armpit x

https://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/ss/slideshow-breast-cancer-metastasis#:~:text=The%20lymph%20nodes%20under%20your,other%20parts%20of%20your%20body. 

Going by the information you gave here, I would really ask the oncologist for exact details on why he thinks your cancer is not curable, and especially in light of what the nurse was saying. 

Thanks GreyCats, I’ll try to speak to him on Monday, it’s all a little overwhelming, that information is great, I’ve avoided lookout too much on the internet for fear of wrong information but that’s really simple & very helpful x

Good, I am glad this helped. I am very mindful that the actual professional in all of this is your oncologist, who has your medical file and is familiar with all the medical information, so my line of thinking at the moment is that he must have had a good reason to say what he was saying, which doesn't necessarily make him either right or wrong, just that there is something here that is not quite clear yet. 

Also, the, "possibly on the lungs," needs to be resolved one way or another. I was once told I definitely had mets on the lungs, an adjudication that was made by the MDT looking at scans, only for a surgeon to go into my lungs months later, pluck the things out, and allow pathology to prove once and for all that none of them had anything to do with breast cancer. This made it very clear that they can only tell so much from scans, and that scans are not definite proof. 

Hi Aunty P

I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in the lymph nodes in my neck. I was started on a course of oral chemo which didnt work for me and the last ct scan I had showed spots in the lung. I'm now on a different chemo regime and have another ct scan next week. For me because I can see the tumours in my neck, I'm able to see whether the chemo is having an effect and I can see some shrinkage. 

In terms of getting my head round a similar prognosis to yours, it is bloody difficult. It has taken me months to accept. Not that I was in denial before but what I mean is now I have got to a point where I am mostly thinking what I can do to make sure I am making the most of the time I have left with my son who is 10 and my husband. There are lots of people who go on to contradict their original prognosis and once the cancer is stabilised, go on to live longer than expected. I hope I am one of those.

In your case as greycats says, it sounds like you need clarity from the medical team. 

Let us know what they say when you speak to them.