Good morning , I am awaiting my biopsy results 3 weeks or so after hysterectomy and, as I understand , grade 3 cancer is always treated with chemotherapy ( my provisional biopsy indicates stage 1)?
My consultant didn’t wish to particularly discuss before post op results and my knowledge comes from the macmillan information booklets . Just thinking I need to start preparing myself mentally now . Not sure when any treatment will start post op . Best wishes and thank you .
Hi Beepeep
I hope that you are recovering well from your surgery.
I think it is a good idea to prepare that you will need further treatment. I had to have further treatment and I was not expecting to and that can be hard.
Your post op pathology will be the important factor and along with stage and grade they will also have additional information. It is this information that they will also use to decide which treatment would be the best. There are different types of grade 3 endometrial cancer, some can behave more aggressively. Factors such a lymphatic/vascular invasion are also important. They will look at the whole picture.
I was stage 1, grade 3 and had chemotherapy and then 5 weeks of external beam radiotherapy. I did not have brachytherapy as no cells were found in my cervix. My treatment was adjuvant so it was to mop up any stray cells and to lower the risk of recurrence.
The thing with a grade 3 cancer is that they can behave more aggressively and can spread more quickly in some people. It doesn't mean that they necessarily have, but the potential is there. So for a grade 3 the treatment tends to be more aggressive at an early stage. So a stage 1a, grade 1 cancer could potentially be treated with surgery alone. But if the grade was 2/3 then further treatment is normally recommended. Sometimes this can be radiotherapy, sometimes chemo and sometimes both.
My treatment started 6 weeks post op as my consultant said I needed time to heal internally from the surgery first.
Jane
