living with "positive margins"

Katmy
Katmy Member Posts: 93
in Breast Cancer #1
How many survivors were told they had "positive margins?" I had a positive margin and the anxiety of the cancer being in my lymph nodes in my breast bone is dominating me. Breast bone lymph nodes are not sampled so there is no way to know for sure if the cancer is there. I would like to know some stories of women who had positive margins.

Comments

  • Bella Luna
    Bella Luna Member Posts: 1,578 Member
    #2
    What stage are you? I have
    What stage are you? I have never heard of the expression,"living with positive margins". Do you, by chance, live in Florida and do you FB?
  • Rague
    Rague Member Posts: 3,653 Member
    #3
    "positive margins"?
    I've never heard the term "positive margins" - what are you meaning? Certainly there are many terms that I've never heard.
  • jerseygirl231
    jerseygirl231 Member Posts: 178
    #4
    do you mean unclean margins
    do you mean unclear margins
  • laughs_a_lot
    laughs_a_lot Member Posts: 1,368 Member
    #5
    margins
    Went to the surgical oncologist today and he stated that I had negative margins. I said "do you mean that there is no evidence of cancer in the margin you created around the tumor when you took it out?" He said yes. When they take out the tumor they like to take out enough surrounding tissue to have 2 or 3 centimeters of non cancerous tissue surrounding the tumor to create a sort of a buffer region in the margin around the tumor.

    Sorry to hear about your positive margins. Will they be sending you in for more surgery to get more tissue out to create a negative margin for you?
  • Katmy
    Katmy Member Posts: 93
    #6
    laughs_a_lot said:

    margins
    Went to the surgical oncologist today and he stated that I had negative margins. I said "do you mean that there is no evidence of cancer in the margin you created around the tumor when you took it out?" He said yes. When they take out the tumor they like to take out enough surrounding tissue to have 2 or 3 centimeters of non cancerous tissue surrounding the tumor to create a sort of a buffer region in the margin around the tumor.

    Sorry to hear about your positive margins. Will they be sending you in for more surgery to get more tissue out to create a negative margin for you?

    They removed all the breast
    They removed all the breast material that could be. The surgeon even took some muscle. I am Stage 1 with no axillary node involvement. However, the tumor was located on top of my internal mammary lymph nodes ( not the arm pit ones). So, I have this worry that positive margins over a lymph node that was not tested, means I am beyond Stage 1.
  • dyaneb123
    dyaneb123 Member Posts: 950
    #7
    Because I had unclear
    Because I had unclear margins I had to do rads., but I was stage 2. I don't think they would send you to radiation at stage 1.
  • laughs_a_lot
    laughs_a_lot Member Posts: 1,368 Member
    #8
    Katmy said:

    They removed all the breast
    They removed all the breast material that could be. The surgeon even took some muscle. I am Stage 1 with no axillary node involvement. However, the tumor was located on top of my internal mammary lymph nodes ( not the arm pit ones). So, I have this worry that positive margins over a lymph node that was not tested, means I am beyond Stage 1.

    Sorry
    Sorry to hear that there is no way to create a negative margin. I beleive that this still can still be a good outcome. I am stage 2 with HER2 cancer and I have a 76 to 88% chance of survival beyond 5 years. So there are the odds if the oncologist decides to bump your diagnosis up to stage 2 (which he may not). I think this is still pretty good odds.
  • phoenixrising
    phoenixrising Member Posts: 1,508
    #9
    I was a stage 2B with a
    I was a stage 2B with a grade 3 tumour and 3/6 sentinel nodes positive. They had to scrape the chest wall to get a 1mm margin. I'm not confident that it was very clean, however they did want to do radiation which I refused. If you've done chemo and rads then hopefully they would've cleaned up anything left. I know it's hard not to worry but I'm pretty sure your docs have got you covered.
    jan
  • kt1127
    kt1127 Member Posts: 51
    #10
    Katmy said:

    They removed all the breast
    They removed all the breast material that could be. The surgeon even took some muscle. I am Stage 1 with no axillary node involvement. However, the tumor was located on top of my internal mammary lymph nodes ( not the arm pit ones). So, I have this worry that positive margins over a lymph node that was not tested, means I am beyond Stage 1.

    I also had posiive margins.
    I also had posiive margins. I had a left side mastectomy in November and the drs went back and forth about whether the tomoxafin would be enough or ifI would need radiation. I tried to trust my dr but right before I was scheduled to have recostruction surgery I could not take the nightmares about cancer being in my chestwall I started radiation 18 day ago. I feel so much better now that I feel Ihave done everything I can. This is a tough road and i seems we all have such different stories. Good luck to you
  • kt1127
    kt1127 Member Posts: 51
    #11
    Katmy said:

    They removed all the breast
    They removed all the breast material that could be. The surgeon even took some muscle. I am Stage 1 with no axillary node involvement. However, the tumor was located on top of my internal mammary lymph nodes ( not the arm pit ones). So, I have this worry that positive margins over a lymph node that was not tested, means I am beyond Stage 1.

    I also had posiive margins.
    I also had posiive margins. I had a left side mastectomy in November and the drs went back and forth about whether the tomoxafin would be enough or ifI would need radiation. I tried to trust my dr but right before I was scheduled to have recostruction surgery I could not take the nightmares about cancer being in my chestwall I started radiation 18 day ago. I feel so much better now that I feel Ihave done everything I can. This is a tough road and i seems we all have such different stories. Good luck to you
  • kt1127
    kt1127 Member Posts: 51
    #12
    Katmy said:

    They removed all the breast
    They removed all the breast material that could be. The surgeon even took some muscle. I am Stage 1 with no axillary node involvement. However, the tumor was located on top of my internal mammary lymph nodes ( not the arm pit ones). So, I have this worry that positive margins over a lymph node that was not tested, means I am beyond Stage 1.

    I also had posiive margins.
    I also had posiive margins. I had a left side mastectomy in November and the drs went back and forth about whether the tomoxafin would be enough or ifI would need radiation. I tried to trust my dr but right before I was scheduled to have recostruction surgery I could not take the nightmares about cancer being in my chestwall I started radiation 18 day ago. I feel so much better now that I feel Ihave done everything I can. This is a tough road and i seems we all have such different stories. Good luck to you

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