Only 30% of my tumor was cancer and I'm wondering what the significance of that is.

CessnaFlyer
CessnaFlyer Member Posts: 110
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
One thing that I have been puzzled about since my resection is that my surgeon mentioned that I was lucky because even though my tumor was the size of an orange (8.5 x 7.5 x 2.5 cm) only 30% of it was cancer. Do any of you know the significance of having a tumor that is only part cancer, and have any of you heard of this before? I had always assumed that a tumor was either benign or all cancer.

Comments

  • herdizziness
    herdizziness Member Posts: 3,624 Member
    #2
    Benign or not, that is the question
    No, a tumor isn't necessarily all cancerous, part of it can be benign, isn't that great???
    Honestly, this is a good thing!!!
    I'm so happy for you!!!! 30 percent?? How great is that???
    Winter Marie
  • Erinb
    Erinb Member Posts: 293
    #3
    I read in some book that a
    I read in some book that a cancerous tumour may only shrink 20% or 30% because that is all it can shrink if it is 30% cancerous. I didn't believe it because I thought that all tumors were either cancerous or NOT. Maybe the author was right...maybe some tumors don't have a complete response to chemo because they are not 100% cancerous??? Interesting.
  • z
    z Member Posts: 1,414 Member
    #4
    Erinb said:

    I read in some book that a
    I read in some book that a cancerous tumour may only shrink 20% or 30% because that is all it can shrink if it is 30% cancerous. I didn't believe it because I thought that all tumors were either cancerous or NOT. Maybe the author was right...maybe some tumors don't have a complete response to chemo because they are not 100% cancerous??? Interesting.

    tumor
    The biopsy for the anal cancer tumor I had, showed it was a moderatley differentiated tumor, and the classes are well, moderate, poor. This means that the cancer cells were moderately different from the normal cells. The ideal situation would be to have a well differentiated tumor and there is a clear indication of where the cancer and normal cells are seperate. I have never heard of a correctol tumor having this type of dx. So the tumor being 30% cancer as it was so big, that means 70% was normal tissue, so I would call that well differentiated.
    Lori

Discussion Boards