bone mets and lymph node involvement

I am sorry to hear that you have bony mets in 2 vertebrae. It must be hard waiting again for results and not being sure what the oncologist is going to say is the best treatment plan. It sounds as though they are being very thorough in investigating you to make sure they get the plan right.

I am not sure what it all means but cervical nodes are in your neck, mediastinal nodes are in the area behind your breast bone (sternum) in between your lungs and para-aortic nodes run alongside the aorta. 

I hope you have your oncology appointment very soon so that you get the clarity you need.

xxxxx

"Avid" means they looked a certain way in the scan, they sort of "lit up" which made them suspicious to the team. That does not mean they have found cancer, it means they are suspecting it could be so. I have seen things showing up that way only to be found out later, by pathology, to be completely innocent and benign. I have also seen them coming up trouble, which is why "avid" only draws supicion but is not definitive. "cervical," "mediastinal" and "paraaortic" are locations within the body. the cervical lymph nodes are in the neck area. mediastinal lymph nodes are within the chest area. The paraaortic lymph nodes are a little below that, sort of where the chest meets the tummy. Active and enlarged means they are busy doing something, possibly fighting an infection or possibly for another reason, so again, they are making the team think there is more to be found out, but no real clue as to what. (To give an example, if you cut your finger while chopping up vegetables, the lymph nodes in that armpit may grow a bit large for a while.)

The situation you are in now is a little like opening the door to find two policemen on the door step. Are they there to tell you that your grandfather has just been in a fatal accident or are they there to ask if you know how long the car down the road has been parked there? Their appearance on your doorstep tells you something is going on, but no idea yet if it's completely innocent or what.

I think your team should tell you the following: 1. How they are planning to find out exactly what is making these lymph nodes appear that way. 2. Would your treatment be affected by finding out what the lymph nodes are actually doing. In other words, would it change in any way if the team finds out the lymph nodes are active due to cancer or active due to other reasons.

thank you to both people who replied. Very helpful

unfortunately in my case the policemen brought the bad news. I saw the oncologist who said i now move onto ribociclib. This was quite unexpected as a new development. So now seeking more information about this. Cant quite get my head around it yet.