A malignant mixed Müllerian tumor

Hello Lofty1973

Welcome to the Online Community and the Womb forum.

I am sorry to hear that your sister has just been diagnosed with womb cancer. 

If you click on my name- my profile will come up but I also had carcinoma sarcoma (mixed mullerian tumour) It basically means that there is a mix a carcinoma cells and sarcoma cells. 

I will pop a link below for some information that will help explain things.

Womb cancer booklet | Macmillan Cancer Support

Womb cancer can be different stages and grades and these can determine which treatments are offered.

Stage 1 is where the cancer is confined to the womb. Stage 2 is where cancer cells are found in the cervix. Stage 3 is where the cancer has spread but it is still in the pelvis. Stage 4 is where it has spread further afield. 

With grades- grade 1 is where the cancer cells are similar to normal cells and there is not much change. Grade 2 -there is more change. Grade 3 is where the cells look very different.

There are also 2 main types of womb cancer. Type 1 - the majority have this type. Type 2 which is rarer.

Carcinoma sarcoma/mixed mullerian is a type 2, grade 3 cancer and can be more aggressive. (Aggressive means it can spread quicker) It is not sarcoma despite the name and it is treated as an endometrial cancer as it has been shown to behave in a similar way.

I did not know that mine was carcinoma sarcoma until my post op pathology came back. I have had chemotherapy and also external beam radiotherapy. 

It is good that they can offer your sister some treatment but it is difficult to know what that maybe without knowing the circumstances. My treatment was a hysterectomy, followed by 4 cycles of chemotherapy. I then had 25 sessions of external beam radiotherapy. For some ladies immunotherapy is an option. Other ladies on here have been given brachytherapy (internal radiotherapy) There are a lot of factors that they take into account when recommending treatment.

I would advise you not to google as a lot of the information out there is not particularly accurate. It can also be quite scary. 

Your sister should have a cancer nurse specialist assigned to her and this is a person who should be able to offer a lot of support. 

What I would expect to happen next for your sister is that she will be invited in for an appointment to discuss treatment options, have side effects etc explained and to then be consented for treatment. In my experience, chemo seems to be offered for carcinoma sarcoma, whatever the stage. I was only stage 1b. 

I hope this helps a bit but if there is anything else you want to ask, please do so. 

We also have a Support Line that you can call between 8am-8pm daily if you feel it would help to talk things through. They are lovely on there. You can also speak with one of the nurses about any medical questions.

I wish your sister well in her treatments and having family behind you when you are going through something like this, really does help. 

Jane

Thanks so much I am going with her tomorrow to speak about treatment x

I hope it goes well and it does help to have someone with you. They may well give her a copy of the booklet (the link above) Let us know how she gets on and what stage/treatments they are offering. We can then sort a bit more information if it would help. If they do recommend chemo or external radiotherapy I am happy to answer any questions she may have. Good Luck 

Hi Lofty1973 

I'm sorry to hear about your sisters diagnosis. It may be a bit early for her to think about but if she needs support it may be worth her joining our group

 Living with incurable cancer forum - patients only 

Just something to think about later on. Best wishes for her treatment.

A x

My sister is as told it’s a grade 3 

stage 4 

and chemo is the treatment to see how that kills or strink the cancer ,then after 3 treatment they will see it the can remove the womb x

Hi Lofty1973

Am sorry to hear that it is stage 4 but it sounds positive that they are offering treatment. I had chemo myself and it was tough at times but doable with plenty of support. I did have some side effects but most of them could be helped my medication. 

There is a support thread on here for people who are having chemo and I will pop a link in case it helps.

(+) Chemotherapy Support Thread - Macmillan Online Community

There is also a dedicated Chemotherapy forum, that I found helpful to look at. 

(+) Chemotherapy forum - Macmillan Online Community

We also have another forum that may help yourself. It is for people who are supporting friends and family with cancer.

(+) Family and friends forum - Macmillan Online Community

I wish your sister well with her chemo and hope that it shrinks the cancer to enable it to be removed. I had my hysterectomy first but I did find it fairly straightforward. My chemo came afterwards. 

They will talk your sister through the chemo regime- it seems to be common to have 21 day cycles of carboplatin/paclitaxel. So it would be the first day in hospital for the treatment and then home the same day to recover for 20 days, then the cycle repeats. There are other chemo regimes but being on here- it does seem to be the one they offer. She will also be given a 24 hour phone line to call with any problems. 

Hope this helps a bit but if there is anything else you need, please just ask

Jane

Thanks so much for you information this is much appreciated xxx 

If there is anything else that either of you need or would help, then please do ask