How were you diagnosed? Symptoms? Ultrasound etc?

MAbound said:

Testing

I'm glad your mom is having a d&c rather than a biopsy like I had. I had visible cancer in my cervix that could be removed, but otherwise cancer can be missed by a biopsy if they don't sample from just the right spot. 

A d&c can diagnose that 1) you definietly have cancer or not 2) the type of uterine cancer you have and 3) the grade of cancer you have. It cannot diagnose what stage you are. Keep in mind that cancer can be missed in some scenarios, but that some tests are better at detection than others like a d&c is less likely to miss something than a biopsy. Ultrasounds just point to the need for more testing and really aren't definitive about cancer's presense or absence by themselves. 

It's important to know that there is more than one type of uterine cancer. Endometrial Adenocarcinoma is the most common type, whereas others such as UPCS, MMMT, and others are rarer and generally more aggressive and harder to cure. The type of cancer found can influence treatment decisions as you would want to treat an early stage, low grade aggressive type more aggressively than a like-staged/graded adenocarcinoma.

Grade indicates the degree of mutation the cancer cells have. Grade 1 cells most closely resemble normal cells whereas Grade 3 cells show the greatest degree of mutation and indicate a need for more aggressive treatment than lower grades. Grade 3 cancers carry higher risk of recurrence, so again, you kind of want to throw the kitchen sink at them during frontline treatment irregardless of stage.

If your mother is diagnosed with cancer and sent to a gyn-oncologist, the first visit will involve a pelvic exam and because most people want an idea of what they are facing, she may also get a "guestimate" as to what stage she is. It's important to understand that staging can only be finalized following surgery (hysterectomy) after they test all of the tissue that they remove. Any staging given prior to that is subject to change. Getting those pathology results can take anywhere from a week to several weeks. The wait for those results can be really hard, so  you kind of need to be mentally prepared for that.

It's really hard to live with something like this hanging over your head. It takes a while to get diagnosed, wait for results, get needed appointments, have the surgery, recover, and finally get results that tell you if you need anything more or not. When you get a cancer diagnosis, you want it out, like yesterday, and you worry that it's continuing to spread while you are doing all of the waiting that is involved. Fortunately, this tends to be a slow-growing cancer so there is no need to panic about it. Waiting is something we have all had to do a lot of, so we can attest to the fact that it's not going to be a big factor in any outcome. I hope hearing that helps you and your mom to get through what you may be facing, but the best outcome from the d&c would be a negative diagnosis and I am hoping for that for her. 

As scary as a cancer diagnosis can be, for this cancer, at least, they have made leaps and bounds in it's treatment and curability in recent years. It can be a long stretch of time to get from diagnosis, to surgery, and through treatment if it's needed, but it's doable and there is a lot of support for getting through it here. There are a lot of variables involved, so the experience and outcomes really vary from individual to individual depending on what they bring to the table. It's really important to remind onself of that if you make the mistake of Googling any statistics. Don't do it. They are often outdated and are generalities that really don't apply to individuals and only serve to scare people.

Your mom is really past the point of comparing endometrial thicknesses or amount of bleeding to others to give you the answer you want one way or the other. It's going to take the d&c to do that. If she is past menopause, any bleeding is not normal, so getting that investigated is what has to be done, so you all are doing the right thing in the right order. Dealing with cancer is always a one-step-at-a-time process that is more of a marathon than a sprint in regards to progress. It's not easy to deal with all of the anxiety over a prolonged period of time as you get through this. Hopefully it will help you to settle in for the long haul knowing how this works.

Hang in there and feel good that your mother has you looking out for her. 

Also what do you mean you had visible cancer in ur cervix?  could they see it in the ultrasound ? Or in the pap smear?

MoeKay said:

Your Questions

I had intermittent spotting around the time of menopause, so both my gynecologist and I thought it was just a menopausal symptom.  My ultrasound showed an endometrial stripe measuring approximately 7.3 mm.  The ultrasound also found a mass which was characterized as a "probable fibroid."  However, both my pap smear and endometrial biopsy showed endometrial adenocarcinoma.  After my surgery, my gynecologic oncologist said I had no "fibroid," but what the radiologist was characterizing as a probable fibroid on my ultrasound was the major site of my cancer.  I was diagnosed in April 1999, so this April will be 21 years. 

Your mother is lucky to have someone who is looking out for her best interests.  Keep us posted and good luck to your mom.  Waiting to find out what's going on is difficult. 

 

Also im just wondering did u have the very rare incident where a fibroid was cancerous? Because from my understanding correct me if i’m wrong, uterine cancer doesnt appear as a mass but as a thicknned endometriam , but in some cases there are fibroids that turn into cancer?

Forherself said:

Please don't get ahead of yourself

Endometrial cancer can be in a polyp, the myometrium (the uterus is made of muscle) the endometrium,  We have all found that each person is a statistic of one.  Each person is different.  I had an endometrial stripe but I had no malignancy in my hysterectomy specimen.   You just cannot know until a biopsy is done, and then if needed a total hysterectomy with staging.  It is a scary time.  Keep asking questions.  I had serous carcinoma confined to a polyp.   I did not have treatment.  I am a year and a half out with no recurrence.  Each case is different.  HOpefully, your mother can get the biopsy done so you can have more information.

Thank you , she is just loosing it , she is living as if she already has it and already has it at stage 4, she’s basically saying her goodbyes and whatnot its crazy but i dont know what to do anymore . She doesnt even want to go through with the biopsy because “what if i have it then i’ll loose everything“

MoeKay said:

Hello Again

Aliasalb, in response to your above post, as I mentioned previously, I did not have a cancerous or non-cancerous fibroid.  According to my gynecologic oncologist, the major site of my uterine cancer was a mass (tumor) measuring approximately 4 centimeters in diameter.  It's my understanding that in extremely rare cases, a cancerous fibroid can occur, which is known as leiomyosarcoma.  Here's a link to information on fibroids which you might find helpful: https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/uterine-fibroids.

For some reason, I was not able to post this response right after your second post with questions for me as I did for your first post.  I tried several times, but this post kept appearing at the bottom of the thread. 

All the best,

Maureen

Thank you for answering me , its been a horrible week waiting to get the d&c done . What stage was your cancer and have you been cancer free since ? I’m sorry but i’m still confused about the mass they thought was a fibroid but turned out to be a mass ... my mom has what they also thought was a fibroid and it measures 7 x 6 cm . I’m just wondering if she could be like you and could also have a mass that they keep mistaking as a fibroid ? 

Fridays Child said:

Ultrasound vs biopsy

The ultrasound may not be able to definitively differentiate between a fibroid and a cancerous tumor.  I had a fibroid and a separate cancerous tumor.  It has been nearly 8 years since I was diagnosed at first.  It has now been two years since I was diagnosed with a Stage 4 recurrence.  Please tell her that Stage 4 is not an automatic death sentence now.  There are many new treatments and in some cases (as mine) even if you don't achieve No Evidence of Disease status, you may be able to treat it as a chronic disease and to live a relatively normal life.   Best of luck to you and your mom!

So sorry it came back ... was it stage 4 when they first caught it? Was it an aggressive type of cancer? I hope you get well very soon