staging question

lizerpup

Hello everyone. This is my first post on the breast cancer board. I have ovarian cancer stage 3c. At my fourth chemo treatment for ovarian cancer, I was told I had breast cancer in my right breast. The ovarian cancer did not metastasize to the breast. I have two separate cancers. I was tested and have a mutated BRCA2. The doctor recommended to be safe that I have both breast removed so I did when I finished the chemo for the ovarian cancer. Just my luck the breast cancer spread to the underside of my skin. The surgeon scraped the skin the best he could but the cancer is still there. He said he cannot scrap anymore for fear of skin death and he cannot go back in and cut it all out. (I really do not understand why) I am about halfway through radiation treatments. I ask the doctor what my stage of breast cancer was and was told that I was not staged due to fact that I had chemo before surgery, which probably reduced the size of the cancer. I am new to breast cancer and do not see why one is not staged at the time of surgery regardless of what was done before surgery. Has anyone else not been staged due to having chemo first? Does it sound right not to be staged?

weazer

I'm not sure
Hello and welcome to the board, I've never heard of that before, but it does sound right becauase the chemo would of shrunk your tumor.
Keep us posted if you find out anything different.
Take care sister....Karie

Rague

We're each UNIQUE!
I'm IBC so that basically says that StageIII or IV when DX'd. I saw surgeon the Monday after I was officially DX'd (which was the day after my mammo/sono/biopsy). He said that there was no way that he would do surgery until after chemo tried to get margins. So did A/C, then had Rad. Mod. Mast. (another batch of Chemo and Rads afer plus Femara). After surgery I asked him about Stage. He said that what he was presented at surgery he considered me Stage II Thanks to what Chemo did but was sure that Chemo Dr would say Stage III - I never asked Chemo Dr. - it didn't matter to me rather II or III at that time being IBC - I was not Stage IV.

Aug 30 - I saw Chemo and Rads, Chemo wants to see me in 6 mths, Rads never wants to see me again(LOL). Tomorrow, I see Surgeon for my year since Mod. Rad. Mast. (well actually 3 days short of).

Susan

seof

My guess
My guess would be that he is thinking the breast cancer has been affected by the chemo and the staging is based on the original tumor. I would ask whether the staging or lack thereof has any bearing on treatment decisions at this point. In my mind it does not matter now what size the tumor might have been, or what it is called, the important thing is what to do about it. However, I am not at all a Doctor. In your place I think I would write down all questions related to this issue and ask him to explain himself more fully. If you can't get satisfactory information from this Dr., find a second opinion.

That's my 2cents worth, take care, seof

Megan M

Rague said:

We're each UNIQUE!
I'm IBC so that basically says that StageIII or IV when DX'd. I saw surgeon the Monday after I was officially DX'd (which was the day after my mammo/sono/biopsy). He said that there was no way that he would do surgery until after chemo tried to get margins. So did A/C, then had Rad. Mod. Mast. (another batch of Chemo and Rads afer plus Femara). After surgery I asked him about Stage. He said that what he was presented at surgery he considered me Stage II Thanks to what Chemo did but was sure that Chemo Dr would say Stage III - I never asked Chemo Dr. - it didn't matter to me rather II or III at that time being IBC - I was not Stage IV.

Aug 30 - I saw Chemo and Rads, Chemo wants to see me in 6 mths, Rads never wants to see me again(LOL). Tomorrow, I see Surgeon for my year since Mod. Rad. Mast. (well actually 3 days short of).

Susan

I always thought you got
I always thought you got your stage and grade of bc with your pathology report after your surgery. I didn't know they could give you that information otherwise. Wish I could be more help to you.

I was Stage 1, Grade 1 and had a lumpectomy and radiation treatments with my bc.

Good luck,

Megan

New Flower

seof said:

My guess
My guess would be that he is thinking the breast cancer has been affected by the chemo and the staging is based on the original tumor. I would ask whether the staging or lack thereof has any bearing on treatment decisions at this point. In my mind it does not matter now what size the tumor might have been, or what it is called, the important thing is what to do about it. However, I am not at all a Doctor. In your place I think I would write down all questions related to this issue and ask him to explain himself more fully. If you can't get satisfactory information from this Dr., find a second opinion.

That's my 2cents worth, take care, seof

Stage is not important
at this point the most critical is to remove tumor completely. I would be more concern about skin invasion. He probably could not remove skin because he did not have enough skin to close the opening. Ask for consultation with plastic surgeon who can use flap from your own skin to close. I had a skin invasion after mastectomy (no clear margins) and had skin re-exision to completely remove tumor. You can write me PM if you have more questions.
Take care ,
New Flower

Marcia527

I was staged at 3a before
I was staged at 3a before treatment but had chemo before surgery and after surgery he changed my stage to stage 2. He did the chemo first because I had a large tumor 6cm and 3cm and said he'd have to do skin grafts if it didn't shrink. It did and did not need skin graft. Talk to your doctor and ask what he would judge your stage to be after chemo just for your info. They use size of tumor, if it is in nodes, and if it spread to determine stage. He has that info so should be able to tell you.