Micrometastases

JuliaJ

Anyone diagnosed with this and had onco test

petieagnor

Hi Julia,
Welcome to WhatNext. You'll find wonderful support here. I sure have. Not too sure just what micrometastases is even after I googled it. I have Metastatic Breast Cancer in my lung. I've had it since April 2016. I'm 75 and doing quite well. I take Ibrance now & have for nearly 2 yrs. We're here to help, just let us know.

petieagnor

Hi Julia,
Welcome to WhatNext. You'll find wonderful support here. I sure have. Not too sure just what micrometastases is even after I googled it. I have Metastatic Breast Cancer in my lung. I've had it since April 2016. I'm 75 and doing quite well. I take Ibrance now & have for nearly 2 yrs. We're here to help, just let us know.

ChicagoSandy

Hi, Julia,

Welcome to the club nobody wants to join. Micrometastases (aka "micromets") are clusters of cells that broke off from the primary tumor but are so small they're neither visible to the naked eye nor detectable on conventional imaging (i.e., mammography, ultrasound, CT or PET scan or MRI)--they are visible only under the microscope. (Which is what pathologists do). They are discovered most commonly in the lymph nodes (sentinel node biopsy or axillary node dissection). It is assumed that even if the nodes appear clean, a tumor over a certain size will "seed" micromets--which is why we get adjuvant therapy (radiation, endocrine, chemo or targeted) after surgery. It's also why treatment of early (i.e., Stages I-IIIa) cancer differs based on tumor size and lymph node involvement--basically, to "head the varmints off at the pass," in the words of old Western movies.

A diagnosis of micromets doesn't necessarily mean that the tumor has already metastasized to an organ or organ system distant from the location of the original primary tumor (Stage IV), only that there's a higher likelihood it will do so eventually (and sooner rather than later. Which is also why technically, the term "Stage IV" refers to cancer that has been found to be metastatic at initial diagnosis--a tumor originally diagnosed as "early" but later metastasizes is called "metastatic" when that happens. But colloquially, it's easier to refer to all metastasized cancers as "Stage IV" even when they hadn't yet been shown to be metastatic when first diagnosed).

JuliaJ

Hello to everyone who has respoonded to me ? I see no reply button. And I've been getting multiple copies of the same response. Thanks for the inclusive nature of this forum and the vast knowledge.

Carool

Hi, Julia. We got your reply in which you wrote that you saw no reply button. I assume you now can reply.

Yes, WN is inclusive and has a lot of active breast cancer survivors. We’re here to help.

legaljen1969

Carool, I never see a "reply" button, but I can "reply" through writing in the "answer" box. Maybe that's what Julia did too.

Carool

Thanks, legaljen. Yes, it’s that way for me, too, on my iPhone. I guess I thought it might be different on a computer (actually, I wasn’t thinking, lol).

JuliaJ

I'd like to let everyone know I got the results of my Oncotype DX test today. My score was intermediate at 17, but really good news because I will not need to have chemotherapy, just radiation and tamoxifen. In fact, if I were given chemo, it would not help at all. It was a long agonizing month of waiting, but I feel reassured; the results indicate my cancer has only a 15% chance of recurring over 10 years, and the Tamoxifen will help to reduce recurrence. Just FYI, I am 70 years old, diagnosed with Stage 1b, grade two; sentinel node biopsy showed micrometastases (tiny cancer cells) in one lymph node, the other clear. So now I can look forward to my summer and thank God and be grateful for every awesome day ahead.

Carool

JuliaJ, that’s great news! Thank you for letting us know. Radiation is usually pretty easy and uneventful. I’m glad you won’t need chemo.

alivenwell

JuliaJ, can they simply remove the one lymph node? I had two next to each other on my colon and they removed 'clean' edges. That was in 2012. So far, so good. I re-read my records after a better understanding of cancer from this site. Apparently I have a small lump on my heart, but it is not cancerous. Never knew.

ChicagoSandy

In an ideal universe, they can remove only the sentinel nodes. That's what a sentinel node biopsy is: they don't go in with a core needle like they did for your tumor to take a sample, they just remove the whole node. If two sentinels are close together, they take 'em both. And in my case, each sentinel had a "regular" node stuck to it, so they took out 4 nodes, all negative.

BTW, this is why if you've had even a sentinel node biopsy rather than the old-school axillary-node resection (an entire "level" of nodes removed, digging down till they hit "pay non-dirt" so to speak. Every node removed compromises the lymphatic system, and increases the risk for lymphedema even decades later. Lymphedema can cause even a minor skin break into a major wound with infection and even sepsis risk, Make sure your surgeon & oncologists instruct you as to how to prevent or at least forestall lymphedema.

alivenwell

Is prevention of lymphedema done with massaging?