Can somebody translate this please?

Someone will correct me if I
Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I think the AIN is something else and has to do with maybe the HPV portion of it? Did you have your CT or PET scan yet? That is when they actually give you a stage based on the size of the tumor, where located, what other areas such as lymph nodes were involved. I had an ultrasound done before my PET and he gave me a T4N1M0 as my tumor was large, it had gone to one of my lympth nodes and as far as he knew had not spread further. I had the PET and my surgeon said it was T3N1M0 which was a stage IIIa. If you go into the NCCN guidelines and sign up you can see all this in there, and it tells you how they come to staging conclusions. I printed out a copy with me and took with me to my first surgeon visit after the PET scan so I could follow what the dr was saying and ask questions. I think I got this right but will defer to others who have had more experience than me. They were there for me when I freaked out thinking the T4 meant it was stage 4. Obviously it was not. Take care, Mariyne

mp327 said:

Hi Matt--
No, this does not mean that you have stage III cancer. It essentially says that you have carcinoma in situ, which means there are cells that could be pre-cancerous. The terms now preferred over carcinoma in situ are HSIL (high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion) or AIN (anal intraepithelial neoplasia). Patients diagnosed with these usually have their lesions treated with means other than chemo/radiation and are then monitored closely for any change in the cells through biopsy. The University of California/San Franciso has some great information on their website about this. I have posted their address below.

http://id.medicine.ucsf.edu/analcancerinfo/cancer/treatment.html

BTW, I worked several years as a medical transciptionist too! I loved it!

Martha
Martha, You are great, I knew part of the answer, but you explained it very well. Lori

mp327 said:

Hi Lori!
Thank you! How ya doin'?

Doin
Hi Martha, I am so far so good. I have been released from my correctol professor as of 10-20-11. I am being monitered now for a 5mm lung nodule in my left lung. I had a lower right lobe lobectomy on 9-23-10 and it was a squamous cell 1 cm lung nodule, it was not a met. I was a 35 year smoker until the anal cancer dx and I quit on 5-4-09. My oncologist said it was from smoking. I think too that the myto lowers your white blood count so much that its hard for your body to fight off inflammation, in which in my case turned into cancer. No scientific proof just a theory. I feel better than I have in years, so hopefully that nodule will be gone or stable. I still am checked at the gyno for the anal, and I will have a colonoscopy next month. I hope your fine too, and I wish you well. Lori

mp327 said:

Hi Matt--
No, this does not mean that you have stage III cancer. It essentially says that you have carcinoma in situ, which means there are cells that could be pre-cancerous. The terms now preferred over carcinoma in situ are HSIL (high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion) or AIN (anal intraepithelial neoplasia). Patients diagnosed with these usually have their lesions treated with means other than chemo/radiation and are then monitored closely for any change in the cells through biopsy. The University of California/San Franciso has some great information on their website about this. I have posted their address below.

http://id.medicine.ucsf.edu/analcancerinfo/cancer/treatment.html

BTW, I worked several years as a medical transciptionist too! I loved it!

Thanks Martha for
Thanks Martha for clarifying. You are so much more well versed in this. I am going to go into the link you put in there myself to get more information. Hope all is going well. Mariylne

MattButts said:

Wow! Just Wow!
EXCELLENT article! THANK YOU for calling it to my attention. I expecially appreciated the section on issues of anal cancer in an HIV setting!

Hi Matt!
I'm glad you found the UCSF website informative. They have an excellent dysplasia clinic out there, which we all need to be aware of just in case. Hopefully, none of us will need to go there. I have a friend from another forum who is a patient there and he is being carefully monitored. His doctor is Dr. Barry. I hope you've also had a chance to visit the website for the Anal Cancer Foundation. (My mug is on their homepage). It's a good website with lots of information. I hope you are doing well.