Lymph Gland involvement after biopsy

they wont know until they test the lymph they removed, i had micro in one, put me in the chemo boat

hope yours are clear

H, the outcomes are mixed. As Djct said, they never really know until they remove the lymph glands and biopsy them. Lymph gland involvement is not the only way cancer can travel through the body though. There are people on here who have had a recurrence with clear lymph nodes, and others who had affected nodes, but without recurrence many years later. However, as Djct suggested, your results might affect your treatment plan. I hope you get a good result xx. 

Hi Fizzler, when I had my mammogram, biopsies and ultrasound they had originally said my lymph nodes looked clear. After my first surgery 1 of my 2 sentinel nodes was positive. This lead to an axillary clearance and they found 9 out of 12 were positive for cancer. Maybe a PET/CT scan would have picked it up but I didn’t have that until after all my surgeries.

Wishing you all the best.

Hugs from cuffcake x x x x x

I was led to believe that my lymph nodes were clear (had 3 biopsies prior to surgery) but surgery revealed cancer in 5 out of 7 removed nodes.  It was a huge shock and very disappointing. 
As others have said, until the removed nodes have been fully tested in the lab you can’t be sure unfortunately.  It was explained to me that a biopsy just removes a tiny sample from the node whereas the lab look at it as a whole.  The biopsy can miss things as it is just a snapshot view.  The biopsy was to inform the surgeon what surgery to do, whereas the lab report informs the treatment pathway.  If it has been known that I had cancer in the nodes I would have had full node clearance at the time of the lumpectomy, whereas now I have to have a second surgery to do this after chemotherapy.

sorry to hear you have to go back for more surgery, hugs. my mother in law had the same issue. sending support as best as one on online more hugs

Hi,  before my surgery I was aware that there was lymphnoids involved.  These were removed during the lumpectomy.  However,  when the biopsy came back on the surrounding tissue they were unsure if they had all been removed.   I was given the option to have them all removed under the armpit or not going back for secondary surgery.   It was a 50/50 call.  I made the choice to have them removed and it turned out that they were all clear.  I don't regret the choice  I had to know one way or the other. 

I hope you they come back clear for you.

Hi, I am still waiting for my mastectomy, but I had a sentinel lymph node removal operation last month.  I think it's a bit unusual to have this prior to the mastectomy - the consultant I saw today was surprised, anyway - as they're usually removed at the same time but apparently it's so they can be analysed in advance to see how far they've spread which can then predict what needs to happen in surgery.  Hope all goes well for you.