Staging & size of tumors

Cookie48 said:

Tumor size
Whoops....my name is Candy!

Hello Candy. My tumor was
Hello Candy. My tumor was quite large 5.5cm (and I believe was larger as when I had my hemi surgery and they found the tumor, the surgeon removed 3.3cm and thought he got it all-yet when they did my PET CT it showed 5.5 at its largest and that is what was left!) and I had what they thought was node involvement (but minimal) so I was staged at T3N1M0. I had to ask a few times what stage I was at and they said that plus IIIa. If you go into nccn.org and sign up, you can view the guidelines for anal cancer and how they 'stage' someone as well as the treatment protocol. I printed it out and brought it with me to my dr appts. I hope this helps you. Sorry to hear about the anal cancer diagnosis. The group in here is wonderful for advice and guidance and caring. I finished treatment in August and am waiting to hear about further scan results in a few weeks. Best wishes and good luck. Come in here for questions or concerns or simply to vent. Marilyne

z said:

Candy
Hi Candy,

The tumor was staged as IINOMO anal verge cancer. I believe the tumor was about 2.5 cms and was moderatly differentiated. The best scenerio if there can be one, is for it to be well differentiated, as the cells are clearly seperated from the normal cells, whereas, poorly would mean its hard to define the normal from cancer cells.

If you go to the NCCN guidelines it will explain the stage by tumor size.

Lori

Candy
Hi Candy
My tumor was 2.6 cm and I had two perirectal lymph nodes involved. I was staged at T2N2MO and classified as state 111a. Mine was also moderately differentiated.

There are many survivors on this site. This cancer can be beat and we all know that is not the case with many other cancers. It's not an easy battle by any means, but we have hope and a cure rate that is high. For that I know we are all grateful.

Liz

sissy310 said:

I have a question about
I have a question about 'differentiated' - I looked at my scan results and my tumor was moderately differentiated. what does this mean exactly. I've heard it mentioned something about the edges. Can someone explain this in more detail? Thanks. Marilyne

Differentiation
Marilyne--please see the above post by Lori. She has explained this very well. Moderately would be somewhere in the middle.

Cookie48 said:

Staging
Thank all of you for your reply. It was very helpful. Sounds like my sis should get copies of her reports.
Hugs to you all,
Candy

Copies
Candy--Your sister should get copies of EVERYTHING--scan reports, lab results, etc.

Kenny H. said:

Dont recall exact size of
Dont recall exact size of mine would have to dig out pathology reports. Even though radiation shrank it, was to close to sphincter muscle so had to have rectum removed and perm colostomy.

Kenny H
Hi Kenny,

If I recall the tumor was above the dentae line which makes your dx a rectal cancer? Rectal and Anal Cancer are treated differently. I hope your doing well with your colostomy, and you have adusted well. Lori