?'s about Endometrial Stage 3C, Uterine & Breast Cancers

for advice. I am sorry that you needed to join this group, as it is such a terrible shock to learn one has cancer. You mentioned endometrial (or uterine) and breast cancer. What is the 3rd cancer you were told that you have? Did you have a cat scan and/or pet scan? Staging for uterine cancer usually follows an analysis of your excised tissues (uterus, Fallopian tubes, ovaries, omentum and lymph nodes) following a hysterectomy. How was it determined that you have stage 3C uterine cancer prior to surgery? This is the first time I have heard of a woman receiving this diagnosis without scans or surgery. As No Time said, be your own advocate and request a follow up appt soon. Don't hesitate to get a second or third opinion if need be. Let us know how you are doing. Take care.

Best Wishes,

Cathy

So sorry that we had to meet his way and that you had to come to this site, but this is a good place to be.  You will find comfort, support and information here.  You have already recieved somefrom these other ladies.  I know it is hard not to panic, but try not to get too upset yet. You don't know all the details yet.  1st you do need to get that Dr. Appointment.   Most cancer is staged and graded after surgery.  You will surprise yourself with your strength.  We are all stronger than we ever thought we could be.  Come here to ask any questions, someone will have an answer for you, or advise on where to go for for advise.  My cancer is stage 4 high grade and I have been around for 3 1/2 years.  I have many more good days than bad, and I plan to be around for a long time.  Hugs and prayers to you, Lou Ann

So sorry for what you are going thru.   As the others have said you came to the right place.  You can gather a lot of information here.

with regard to your questions 1. It can depend on what plan they are devising for you.  The doctors meet with a board of doctors to discuss your particular case.  With regard to spread there really isn't a cut and dry answer for that

3 question.  You may not have 3 cancers.  You may only have one primary cancer that had spread.   For example you may have started out as breast cancer that spread to utter us and node.  Or you have uterine cancer that spread to breast.  you will need to discuss that with your doctors because that will depend on the action they will take

some posters here have had two primary cancers (breast and uterine). The lymph node involved could be one or the other and may not be another primary cancer

when you hear you have cancer you feel that action should be taken immediately but that's usually not the case. But is scary and frustrating. But hang in there!

i hope this helps.   I was diagnosed in 2005 at age 45 With stage 3a uterin cancer.  II am now 55.   Several ups and downs and a couple of surgeries.

my best to you

kathy

I too am sorry you were in a circumstance to warrant finding this board.  I know this can all be so overwhelming that it quite literally takes your breath away. But try to take a deep breath and step out of panic mode.  VERY HARD to do I realize but it will help you to conserve energy and feel better I promise!

I too am 51 and have both Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC) and Uterine Papillary Serous Carcinoma (UPSC).  In my case, I have two separate cancers, not one type that is metastatic to the other locations - and this is a VERY GOOD THING!  I am just "lucky enough" to have to differeent cancer occurances at the same time.   I was diagnosed with IDC four days before my 51st birthday.  Intially I was clincally staged at IIB due to the size of the tumor as it appears on ultrasound and MRI images.  I choose to have a unilateral mastectomy of my left breast with immediate reconstruction. I had the mastectomy and the reconstruction (Alloderm and tissue expander) performed on June 4.  Once the mastectomy was performed and the cancerous parts of my tumor were measured - my Stage was adjusted to 1A.  This meant that I required no futher treatment other than taking Tamoxifen for five years to block estrogen since my cancer was estrogen and progestrogene postive. I began taking Tamoxifen in July.  I experienced a number of issues with my reconstruction over the summer and eventually it was all surgically removed in late Aug. 

At my medical oncologist visit in mid Sept she insisted that I visit an OBGYN to have my annual PAPs rather than my primary care doctor since I was on Taxmoifen and it has a high risk of uterine cancer associated with its use.  She referred me to a OBGYN and I scheduled a visit and my PAP that was due.  I had that visit on Sept 25.  During the PAP the OBGYN found a polyp hanging out of my cervix.  She quickly hit off while informing me it was there.  I hit panic and she assured me it would be fine... "these things are rarely cancerous."  Two days later while at a conference in CA she called to tell me it was indeed cancerous and was an agressive grade 3 cancer.  I had to come in ASAP to get a biospy of my uterus done and talk about next steps so we made an appointment for two days later when I could be home.  The intital pathology report showed grade 3 uterine cancer with high suspision of almost 90% of the myometrium and was also found in one of the pelvic lymph nodes that was removed.  The remaining 46 lymph nodes that were removed were clear as was the pelvic wash and omentum.  I was stage IIIC1. 

I write all this so you can see... I understand and have also lived the panic but things might not be as bad as they seem at first blush.  Get the right doctors - a breast surgeon for the breast cancer, a medical oncologist for the breast cancer, a gyncological oncologist for the uterine cancer (who might also be able to do the hysterectomy - mine was) and let them do what is needed to properly determine what type(s) of cancer you have and if one is metastatic to the other.  During this process you will get a few pathology reports and other test like xrays, MRIs, and CAT scans - get a copy, review them with the doctors, and ask question until you have the information you need and are able to find some comfort level with the treatment plan they are recommending.  Also, getting a second opinion might not be a bad thing. I felt much better about my treatment plan and team as a whole after a second opinion.

A word of caution/bit of advice that my breast surgeon gave me - try your best to stay away from "Dr Google" until you have pathology and can discuss it with your treatment team.  Most of what is on the internet will be hard to understand and will simply end up scaring the pants off you.  I didn't heed this advice very well and will agree....just scared the crap out of me!!

Hang in there! It's hard to wait for answers but they will come when the testing is completed and the full picture is understood.  There are others of us here is the same or very similar vote we will offer our experiences and support to help you along as best we can.

pinky104 said:

13S

I had to have a D&C first, as my ob/gyn thought I had a benign polyp.  I think it took about a week to get that done.  Next, I got an appointment three weeks later to go to another city and meet with a gyn/onc.  Then it took another 4 weeks before I could get into the hospital there for surgery.  Ten days later, after biopsies of the cancer spots from the surgery, and after my gyn/onc met with a tumor board at the hospital to discuss my cancer, I was told it was stage IVb (the worst stage) UPSC, a very aggressive cancer.  I set up an appointment for my chemo at the hospital where I worked, closer to home.  My oncologist there wouldn't discuss my odds.  He told me that it doesn't matter if 9 people out of 10 survive a cancer if you happen to be in the other 10%.  I also talked to another employee in the cancer center (not a physician) who researched publications and medical websites and found my survival odds in only one place, on a website called oncolink.com.  I'd had my first CT scan by then and I knew I had cancer in the uterus, both ovaries,  the omentum, and small intestine.  She and I guessed it would probably turn out to be stage IV, which is exactly what it was.  She told me that for stage IV, my odds of survival would be about 15%.  Of course, I psyched myself up worrying and expecting to die, so much so that I had an abnormal EKG when I went in for surgery.  I was eventually cleared by a cardiologist a few hours later  I had surgery and 6 rounds, three weeks apart, of chemo (carboplatin and paclitaxel ("Taxol"), which is the standard chemo for my type of cancer.  I  had my gallbladder and appendix out in the same surgery because gallstones had also shown up in my CT scan (the appendix is often taken out routinely).  I had a huge incision.  I finished chemo in late September of 2010, so I'm now five and a quarter years out, with no evidence of disease.  At some point, I found a link on this site that went to a study on UPSC done by a society of gynecological oncologists.  That said that I was supposed to have had only a 9% chance of survival if I followed the recommended protocol (0% if I didn't), but here I am, still alive and kicking. 

I'd suspected I had something wrong with me for years, but I had almost no major symptoms.  i did have diarrhea every morning before I went to work, and one doctor had told me that I had irritable bowel syndrome about 15 years back.  That seemed to fit, since I dreaded going to work every day.  At one point, my mother was diagnosed with celiac disease, so I thought I'd inherited that, but I was tested twice with negative results.  I didn't start bleeding (lightly) until a couple of months before I was diagnosed, and I blamed it on an estrogen cream I'd  recently been given to help with the irritation from a pessary that I was using for a slight uterine prolapse.  I'd looked the cream up in a drug reference I had at my desk at work and found it could cause bleeding.  But when I went back to my ob/gyn to have my pessary removed and cleaned three months later, I mentioned it to him, and he'd told me that I wasn't on a large enough dose of the cream to cause bleeding.  He scheduled me for an ultrasound, and the large polyp was found then, leading to my cancer diagnosis.  I'm really not sure how many years I'd had the cancer.  I did have a procedure 10 years before that for another uterine polyp that had turned out to be benign, so I'm guessing it developed sometime after that.  I'd also had cervical polyps removed 6 times over the years, and all had been benign. 

Is your gyn/onc. going to remove all three cancers, or could he be trying to coordinate surgery dates with other surgeons?  He could be worried about the risks of uncontrolled diabetes and high blood pressure.  Did he recommend getting treatment for either of those things in the meantime?  There's also a chance he got backed up on his appointments due to a Christmas vacation, although he should still be scheduling you in the meantime or at least letting you know why he isn't. And doctors are human. They get sick themselves at times.  Who knows what's going on with him?  I've had to wait to be booked several times because the doctor's office needed new software for each quarter's schedules.

Don't get ahead of yourself and assume you're doomed.  I had my cancer in five sites and I'm still here.  My cancer spread laterally, not thru the lymph nodes.  Yours could have spread thru the lymph nodes or you could, as someone else said on here, have different cancers in different sites.  Wait for the biopsy results to see what's going on.  If you expect the worst, things will either be what you expect or they will be better.  Personally, I worried a lot more than I needed to.  I hope that's what happens with you, too.  Good luck. 

      

You are exactly who I needed to read tonight. Thank you. My dx is very similar as is my prognisis. 5+ years gives me hope. I'm onto the 2nd  recipe in the cookbook, Doxil, and started having some pretty rough skin issues after 3 rounds. I will find out on Jan 25th if it's working - if it is, a few rashes and mouth sores will all be worth it. Less sick than the carbo/taxol, so that's good at least.

Blessings to you and your continued recovery!

Billie