Residual mass

Hi Fly32 

Welcome to this community. I am one of the community champions on this forum as a fellow tnbc patient.

I am sorry you still have a ridge left after chemo. I don’t think they can tell for certain what, if anything, is left, until you have surgery. If there is residual cancer left, the surgery will remove it, and (if you are having breast conserving surgery) radiotherapy will further protect you from local recurrence. They may also offer you further systemic treatment after surgery. 

My situation was a little different as I had surgery first. Part way through chemo I needed a CT scan for other reasons and there was an incidental finding of a lesion on my liver, which later tests established to be a tnbc secondary. They hoped the remaining chemo cycles would “work on it”. I had another scan at the end of chemo and it was still there. So I assume if I had had chemo before surgery, nothing much would have happened during the chemo. 

Subsequent treatment did put me in remission. My cancer is PD-L1 positive so I had further treatment with pembrolizumab and nab-paclitaxel. 

I had a 21 mm tumor with cancer in one lymph node.  12 weeks Paxlitaxel and Carboplatin followed by 4 x EC with immunotherapy alongside the chemo. This was followed by lumpectomy, 11 lymph nodes removed and 3 weeks radiation.  Prior to lumpectomy scan was still showing something measuring close to same size as original scans but much less defined.  I was told, until they operated there is no way of telling whether there was any residual cancer or if it was scarring from the tumor.  My oncologist was optomistic that I had acheived PCR as my initial response to the chemo/immunotherapy was very good (I felt the lump dissapear after a few sessions) and I had made it through the full course ... apparently not everyone does. She was right! They don't know until they have operated and examined it in the Lab.  Because of PCR she recommended that I not continue with the immunotherapy as risks outweighed the benefits. Hope this helps a little.

Thank you for posting this, Noggie!

Currently going through chemo/immuno for TNBC myself so I love a good positive story. 

All the very best to you. 

Yes, this is my first post on this forum though I have been lurking around for some time Only now since i finished Chemo and Immunotherapy almost a year ago and completed full Journey in November do i feel that maybe I can add some positivity to the forum.  At the time, I just put my head down and got through what I needed to get through. These forums can be comforting and scary at the same time.