Can the grade/type of cancer change over several years?

Grade / type
Hi, I'm not sure but I'm only going by what my docs told me. Back in the beginning of 2010, the med oncologist was writing up that I had Stage 3 ovarian. When I asked my gyn/onc, he told me that the info the med onc wrote was incorrect. He told me a person's stage would not change as well as the type of cancer. I would always be classified as Ovarian Cancer, Stage 2a. I do trust my gyn/onc and know he would not mislead me. So, it'll be interesting to see what your doc tells you.

Good luck.

Hissy_Fitz said:

I was told by all my
I was told by all my doctors, as well as everything I've read, that the stage/grade never change. I was diagnosed Stage IIIc Ovarian Cancer. If I had a recurrence in my breast, it would not be breast cancer, it would be ovarian cancer (still stage 3) that had metastasize to the breast.

Someone else, from the Teal Warriors FB page, recently was told that their stage had advanced from a III to a IV, but I don't remember who.

Carlene

I guess there are different opinions out there about the staging of cancer. I was told that if your cancer spreads, then you get "re-staged"...I think the whole point of staging has to do with determining prognosis, treatment, and eligibility for clinical trials.

I can't imagine that the "grade" would change, however.

Carolen

Barneygirl said:

I know the "stage" of cancer
I know the "stage" of cancer never changes. They are looking at the slides to see if the cancer is different. For example, when I was diagnosed and during my first recurrence CA-125 was elevated both times. This recurrence has snuck under the radar as the "new" tumor appears to not be expressing the protein that is picked up by the CA-125 test. Very strange to me, but I was told that the cancer can change and become like a daughter cancer with similar features but not the same. He said to think of the cancer as a checker board comprised of red and black checkers. First and second chemo killed off the red checkers, but left some black checkers behind and these are the checkers that are back. So an entirely new cancer. Hope that makes sense.

Cancer stem cells
Yes, the chemo never kills the cancer stem cells--only the daughter cells die off. Then NEW daughter cells are created by the cancer stem cell & they are usually resistant to the first line chemo that was used. This explains why it is so difficult to treat ovarian cancer.

The best hope of survival is in a combination approach using surgery & chemo first, followed by immune therapy. Anyone who was diagnosed with OVCA & stays in a long remission or is cured either had their cancer originate from a non-stem cell etiology OR their immune system kicked back in with killer cells/antibodies to eradicate the cancer stem cells.

Carolen

leesag said:

I was the lucky one Carlene!
That was me. I was upgraded to a stage IV when the cancer metastasized to my brain. I have no idea why, and honestly, it doesn't really matter. I've seen women on here with low stages struggle, and women with high stages float into remission and NED for many years.

I'm looking to be around to annoy folks for DECADES!

Hugs to all!

Leesa

I notice my oncologist said 'Stage 4' when speaking with others.
I was initially staged 3-c, but noticed that my oncologist referred to me Stage 4 when conferring with a liver specialist on the phone when I was there. My guess is that sometimes they think that the distant metastisis may have been there in microscopic form from the earliest days, just not detected (as opposed to migrating there later.) That's just my guess, though. My earliest CT-scans didn't even look as high as my underarms where my 1st recurrence happened. Maybe that cancer was there all along, who knows? Those nodes there have been consitently responsive to various chemo drugs, ofen 'going dark' on PET scans only to return, and in the 2 years I've known of them they never really enlarge. Whereas, the cancer met I have in my liver were resistant to the last 4 chemo drugs we tried. Wierd.