Florescent bony mass found during D&C....could it be cancer?

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Touchdown99
Touchdown99 Member Posts: 31
edited April 2011 in Uterine/Endometrial Cancer #1
Hi everyone, I've tried to find some information about this on a few different sites, and I'm hoping someone might have some encouragement or some advice or information. My mother, who is 64, had been experiencing some light postmenapausal bleeding in late February, that was the only time this happened. She immediately made an appointment with her doctor and they performed a D&C this week. In the D&C, the doctor said that he found a polyp (which he removed), and he said he found something that he has never seen before in his entire career (almost 30 years)....he said it was a mass that appeared to be "like a bone" and was shiny and hard and appeared "florescent". He was completely baffled and was only able to remove a small part of it to be tested for cancer. We should know the results in a couple of weeks. Of course our family is very worried. He said Mom would have to have a hysterectomy either way, whether it is just a really strange calcium deposit or whether it is cancer or something else. Any thoughts on what this strange mass could be or any thoughts from anyone in general who has any experiences of knowledge or insight? It seems like just not knowing is one of the hardest parts. Any know anything at all about this? I had never heard of a floresent bony mass.

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  • lindaprocopio
    lindaprocopio Member Posts: 1,980
    #2
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    If the results come back inconclusive,....
    I have no idea what it could be, but I will tell you in my research that a cancerous polyp in the uterous or endometrium is often a papillary serous cancer, which is rare enough that they may not be able to identify it. I had to have the tissue slides from the polyp from my original D&C sent to a larger hospital that specializes in cancer in order to have a definitive pre-surgery diagnosis made. So if they can't make a conclusive diagnosis of whether it is cancerous or not, but they still find it highly suspicious, do not be complacent. The hospital can assist you in getting the slides sent out for a second opinion.

    Even though she is having a hysterectomy either way, if there is reason to believe this may be cancer, she needs that surgery done by a gynecologic oncologist instead of the standard hysterectomy she would get from a gynecologist. No matter how much she likes her gynecologist, if you have ANY reason to believe this is cancer, dig in and insist on a gynecologic oncologist so that she won't have to have a second surgery to have her lymph nodes dissected if the pathology done on the larger tissue from her hysterectomy surprises everyone by being cancerous after all. That happens all the time, as many ladies here can attest to.

    But hopefully this is NOT cancer. But those are my 2 urgent heartfelt suggestions. ((((Hugs)))
  • Touchdown99
    Touchdown99 Member Posts: 31
    #3
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    lindaprocopio said:

    If the results come back inconclusive,....
    I have no idea what it could be, but I will tell you in my research that a cancerous polyp in the uterous or endometrium is often a papillary serous cancer, which is rare enough that they may not be able to identify it. I had to have the tissue slides from the polyp from my original D&C sent to a larger hospital that specializes in cancer in order to have a definitive pre-surgery diagnosis made. So if they can't make a conclusive diagnosis of whether it is cancerous or not, but they still find it highly suspicious, do not be complacent. The hospital can assist you in getting the slides sent out for a second opinion.

    Even though she is having a hysterectomy either way, if there is reason to believe this may be cancer, she needs that surgery done by a gynecologic oncologist instead of the standard hysterectomy she would get from a gynecologist. No matter how much she likes her gynecologist, if you have ANY reason to believe this is cancer, dig in and insist on a gynecologic oncologist so that she won't have to have a second surgery to have her lymph nodes dissected if the pathology done on the larger tissue from her hysterectomy surprises everyone by being cancerous after all. That happens all the time, as many ladies here can attest to.

    But hopefully this is NOT cancer. But those are my 2 urgent heartfelt suggestions. ((((Hugs)))

    Thank you so much for your
    Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and prayers. Mom's appointment is late next week, so hopefully they will have the results by then. It just blows me away that the Dr. would say it was unlike anything he had seen before in his 27 years. Maybe you're right, that could mean it's the papillary serous (would that be smooth like a bone), and maybe my Dad misunderstood the part about being florescent, is that even possible for a mass to be florescent? Based on what I've read, it's appears that the papillary serous cancer is very dangerous and aggressive, without a good survival rate, is that right? It's amazing, my Mom goes for all her medical tests every year (pap test, mammmogram, etc.) and everything has always been fine. Her first symptoms for this was the light occasional postmenapausal bleeding about a month or so ago, is that usually an early symptom or could that mean this mass is far advanced? Thank you everyone for the kind support.
  • lindaprocopio
    lindaprocopio Member Posts: 1,980
    #4
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    Touchdown99 said:

    Thank you so much for your
    Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and prayers. Mom's appointment is late next week, so hopefully they will have the results by then. It just blows me away that the Dr. would say it was unlike anything he had seen before in his 27 years. Maybe you're right, that could mean it's the papillary serous (would that be smooth like a bone), and maybe my Dad misunderstood the part about being florescent, is that even possible for a mass to be florescent? Based on what I've read, it's appears that the papillary serous cancer is very dangerous and aggressive, without a good survival rate, is that right? It's amazing, my Mom goes for all her medical tests every year (pap test, mammmogram, etc.) and everything has always been fine. Her first symptoms for this was the light occasional postmenapausal bleeding about a month or so ago, is that usually an early symptom or could that mean this mass is far advanced? Thank you everyone for the kind support.

    My cancer is papillary serous (UPSC) & didn't look boney.
    Please don't start worrying about papillary serous cancer just yet. My papillary serous cancer was discovered in 2008, and I'm still here, so don't let what you read online scare you too much. Anything you read online that is older than 2009 or 2010 is totally dated and worthless as statistics; so many advances have happened since then.

    I didn't mean to introduce a new worry!! I just want you to be aggressive about pursuing an answer if the results come back inconclusive because papillary serous cancer often starts as a polyp in the uterous and your mother had a polyp. And I wanted to stress how vital it will be to have a gynecologic oncologist do her hysterectomy if they are at all suspicious of cancer, as a gyne-onc takes out a LOT more tissue in a cancer-suspected hysterectomy than a gynecologist is used to removing, and if cancer is discovered by surprise during a routine hysterectomy it will require a second surgery if a gyne-onc isn't the one in there at the time.

    But honestly, what you describe is completely unfamilar to me!! So it may be something COMPLETELY unrelated to cancer!! I so hope so! That is probably why no one else responded; what you describe is so unlike what any of our cancers looked like. Please take some comfort fromm that. It's probably not cancer at all.

    & I missed your question anout the light postmenapausal bleeding. That is an early sign of uterine cancer but could be other things too. I myself had no symptoms at all, and was diagnosed Stage 3-c, so it's hard to correlate symptoms with cancer itself. Please try not to worry. As you learn things, please check back in and we will help you all we can. (((Hugs))))
  • Touchdown99
    Touchdown99 Member Posts: 31
    #5
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    lindaprocopio said:

    My cancer is papillary serous (UPSC) & didn't look boney.
    Please don't start worrying about papillary serous cancer just yet. My papillary serous cancer was discovered in 2008, and I'm still here, so don't let what you read online scare you too much. Anything you read online that is older than 2009 or 2010 is totally dated and worthless as statistics; so many advances have happened since then.

    I didn't mean to introduce a new worry!! I just want you to be aggressive about pursuing an answer if the results come back inconclusive because papillary serous cancer often starts as a polyp in the uterous and your mother had a polyp. And I wanted to stress how vital it will be to have a gynecologic oncologist do her hysterectomy if they are at all suspicious of cancer, as a gyne-onc takes out a LOT more tissue in a cancer-suspected hysterectomy than a gynecologist is used to removing, and if cancer is discovered by surprise during a routine hysterectomy it will require a second surgery if a gyne-onc isn't the one in there at the time.

    But honestly, what you describe is completely unfamilar to me!! So it may be something COMPLETELY unrelated to cancer!! I so hope so! That is probably why no one else responded; what you describe is so unlike what any of our cancers looked like. Please take some comfort fromm that. It's probably not cancer at all.

    & I missed your question anout the light postmenapausal bleeding. That is an early sign of uterine cancer but could be other things too. I myself had no symptoms at all, and was diagnosed Stage 3-c, so it's hard to correlate symptoms with cancer itself. Please try not to worry. As you learn things, please check back in and we will help you all we can. (((Hugs))))

    Thank you and I really
    Thank you and I really appreciate your honesty and information. How are you doing with your cancer? I have a gut feeling that the findings are going to show cancer in my Mom, I just pray that it is a non-aggressive type and that it is in the very early stages. The light bleeding was the first and only symptom she had so I'm hoping that is a good sign. I'm going with her to her Dr. appointment next week, so I assume that's when we will know more. I hope I can hold it together for my Mom, no matter what the Dr. tells us.
  • Aderyn
    Aderyn Member Posts: 18
    #6
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    Touchdown99 said:

    Thank you so much for your
    Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and prayers. Mom's appointment is late next week, so hopefully they will have the results by then. It just blows me away that the Dr. would say it was unlike anything he had seen before in his 27 years. Maybe you're right, that could mean it's the papillary serous (would that be smooth like a bone), and maybe my Dad misunderstood the part about being florescent, is that even possible for a mass to be florescent? Based on what I've read, it's appears that the papillary serous cancer is very dangerous and aggressive, without a good survival rate, is that right? It's amazing, my Mom goes for all her medical tests every year (pap test, mammmogram, etc.) and everything has always been fine. Her first symptoms for this was the light occasional postmenapausal bleeding about a month or so ago, is that usually an early symptom or could that mean this mass is far advanced? Thank you everyone for the kind support.

    "I've never seen it before" can be good news
    Just thought I would mention, once I had a funny growth in the roof of my mouth and my dentist scared me to death when he said he had never seen anything like it before. After he talked me down off the ceiling, he pointed out to me that dentists see oral cancer all the time, so the fact that it wasn't like something he'd seen before was actually good, not bad, news. I'm sure her doctor has seen cancer before, so it might be the same kind of "bad news but good news" situation.
  • Touchdown99
    Touchdown99 Member Posts: 31
    #7
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    Aderyn said:

    "I've never seen it before" can be good news
    Just thought I would mention, once I had a funny growth in the roof of my mouth and my dentist scared me to death when he said he had never seen anything like it before. After he talked me down off the ceiling, he pointed out to me that dentists see oral cancer all the time, so the fact that it wasn't like something he'd seen before was actually good, not bad, news. I'm sure her doctor has seen cancer before, so it might be the same kind of "bad news but good news" situation.

    That's a good point. It
    That's a good point. It concerns me that no one seems to know anything about what this might be. My Dad, who met with the Dr. right after the D&C is now second-guessing himself and knows the Dr. said it was shiny and smooth "like a bone", but may not have said the mass was "hard". Although he couldnt remove it all for some reason so maybe it was hard. The comment about never seeing anything like this before in his career is really alarming to me. I'm hoping it's either not anything, or something in the early stages that can be taken care of.

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