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Psychological Support
Questions about support for the mental aspects of breast cancer & treatement.
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AskedPublicly Submitted Question
5/1/2007hi Lillie, I had 8 rounds of chemo before double masectomys, and the last MRI about 2 or 3 weeks before my surgery noted about 3 or 4 enlarged lymph nodes, but after the pathology report, I only had micromets in 1 node. Does this mean that there was only 1 node affected? I know that this node was 1.3cm before the chemo, but was reduced to 1mm after the chemo. The tumor that was 1.5cm was also completely wiped out, except for some DCIS. I just can't get this node out of mind, I know the more you have, the worse it is. I am er positve and her2 neg. I also had 25 rads because of the node. When the person doing the biopsy was about to start, he noticed the enlarged node on the ultrasound and biopsied it as well, it was positive, and the path report said that it had fragments of a lymph node massively involved with metastatic carcinoma, is massively really bad? the nuclear grade was 2-3, thank you
RepliedJHU's Breast Center Reply
5/1/2007first focus on the fact that the chemo worked! though you may never know how many nodes were positive to start, and yes it is probable that it was more than one, you benefitted from doing chemo first to actually see that it was effective in destroying your cancer cells. it is rare for it to kill all... thus the need for surgery, radiation and probably now hormonal therapy.

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