New diagnosis

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Hello everyone. I had a hysterectomy a week before Christmas for a prolapse uterus, heavy uterine bleeding causing anemia and history of hpv. I’m 48 and done with having kids so my surgeon and I decided to just do a vaginal hysterectomy.  Pap 3 months ago was clear for cancer.  Incidental finding of cervical Adenocarcinoma. Doctor called me day after Christmas but I didn’t get the pathology report until yesterday. Talk about a horrible wait.  Thankfully we seem to have caught it early.  Staging as of now is 1A1.   Any idea of what I’m looking at as far as treatment options?  I have an appointment with oncology but not for 3 weeks. Haven’t told anyone except my husband yet as my mum is a bit of a worrier- that’s putting it mildly!!  I don’t want to scare her and she will have so many questions that I cannot answer.  Any advice or thoughts on treatment would be greatly appreciated.  

  • Hi Dk,

    I am sorry for what you are going through. Usually for these early stages they are doing radical hysterectomy. If it is adenocarcinoma they suggest also removal of ovaries due to the slightly higher risk of metastasis.

    I hope all the best with the treatment.

    xxx

  • Hi  and welcome to our group

    I wonder if you could just clarify a small point in your post please? Did you mean adenocarcinoma or was it adenoma? The reason I ask is that an adenoma is a non cancerous tumour, whereas adenocarcinoma is a type of cervical cancer. 

    Stage 1a1 is a very tiny piece of cancer, which can only be seen under a microscope, and so is indeed very early stage. Usually something so small would have been removed in a hysterectomy so are the pathology results saying that the cancer remains and hasn’t been removed? I think, although it’s hard, you will need to sit tight and wait for your oncology appointment to see what the next steps are are it wouldn’t really be possible for us to speculate here. 

    Please let us know how you get on and what will be happening and we will do our best to support you in the group. 

    Sarah xx


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  • I’m sorry about the confusion. Autocorrect is not my friend!!  I have been diagnosed with stage 1A1 cervical adenocarcinoma. The pathology said the margins were clear and the tumor was not close to any lymphatic channels or blood vessels so it sounds like I am lucky as far as that goes. I guess I’m worried about next steps in treatment and I really don’t want radiation. I think that is what is scaring me the most. 

  • Hi  

    Thank you for clarifying-autocorrect can be quite the thing sometimes! The good thing is the margins were clear, and as I said this is a tiny stage of cervical cancer so with clear margins there should be no further treatment required normally with this stage, but that will be clarified at your appointment.

    I’ve never heard of radiation being given in your situation, so I don’t think you should panic about that at this point. Radiation would not have anything to target if there is nothing there and stage 1a1 is only something like 3mm of invasion into the tissue, which is why the surgery usually successfully removes it. 

    You will be followed up from your hysterectomy of course, and you’ll get all the information you need from your appointment in a few weeks, but it sounds like you’ve had a very good result in terms of this being caught at such an early stage.

    Do let us know how you are getting on if you’d like, as it’s very useful for other joiners to read a range of experiences.

    Sarah xx


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