My mums breast cancer diagnosis. Can any medic or anyone who's in the know explain how bad this is please?

[Loopylou6]

Initially thought to be 1mm, but then told 8mm. Near arm pit unfortunately. What does this mean?

I don't know, sorry, but I'm bumping for you. You could try ringing the Macmillan helpline, they talk to friends and relatives of cancer patients too, although they wouldn't be able to give you a clinical opinion.

Oh and I do wish your mum excellent treatment and care, and a good recovery.

Thank you. Much appreciated

So it's a grade 3 ductal small lump, looks like they're going to remove and check to see whether it's spread into the under arm lymph nodes. That's a very common breast cancer and situation so far. Oestrogen positive means it can be treated long term with oral drugs but she is likely to need a lumpectomy and radiotherapy first and perhaps chemo, depending on her age and stamina.

Has she been given an appt with the breast surgeon yet?

Has she had a CT scans (which would check for spread yet)?

Is she NhS or private?

8mm is small for a breast tumour. Oestrogen positive means that there will be targeted therapy for it, a hormone inhibitor to stop it growing again, as the tumour is driven by oestrogen.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is when they identify the nearest lymph node and take a sample of it to see if there is any cancer there. Wide local excision is a lumpectomy, where they remove the lump and possibly a few of the closest lymph nodes to test them.

Depending on the results from surgery, if there is no spread to lymph nodes then she might just have radiotherapy and targeted drug, she might not need chemotherapy at all.

Sorry that you are going through this.

Also, biopsies and scans can only tell them so much. Once they remove it surgically they will know the exact size, it's appearance, whether they got clear margins (which they want) and they'll send it to pathology who will look at it again. But they already know it's grade 3 which is an indication of how fast the cells are duplicating.

The staging is important. If it's still only in the breast it'll be stage one or two which is the holy grail. Stage three means it's gone to the arm pit lymph nodes and the plan looks to be to check whether this has happened and how many it's gone to (the fewer, the better, the lymph nodes are like doors in a tunnel and you want to hear it's not got past any of the doors so to speak. If it's just in one or two nodes that's better news.

I suspect they'll then do rads. Probably 30 days. That's manageable.

Then they'll talk about chemo. If she's elderly she or they may decide not to do it, and some breast cancers don't warrant it.

At some point they'll want to do a CT scan. This is to see if it's spread around the body in which case it's stage four which is a whole new level of shit ness. But they might do the lumpectomy, and rads before that. I think it'll depend on what they find in the lymph nodes as to whether they recommend chemo and how quickly she will get a CT scan.

Hope that helps. I am a ten year breast cancer patient. My lump was 7cm, state three grade three, then stage four.

@theamericanbream

Sending love you've been through so much

This website has information and also a forum where you can ask questions

breastcancernow.org/

Yes she had had a tracker put in, then on Thursday she has a radio active put into her lymph nodes. I just don't know what to think

Does her grade mean they know its spread? Sorry I'm clueless and scared

Also please excuse my rudeness, thank you for everyone who has taken the time to answer me

Thank you x

Grade is how quickly the cancer is multiplying. So grade 1 is very slowly, grade 3 is the quickest, therefore classed as the most 'aggressive' but this does not necessarily mean that it will spread beyond the breast.

Stage is how far it has spread. Stage 1 is no lymph node involvement and a small tumor, Stage 2 is either a larger tumour or some limited lymph involvement (or both), Stage 3 is a lot of positive lymph nodes and Stage 4 is when it has spread to somewhere else in the body (lungs, liver, bones for example) and is classed as 'incurable'.

An 8mm tumour is very small and there is a good chance it will not have spread outside of the breast tissue.

@Loopylou6 I went through this with my mum a year ago now and I remember the fear of the unknown so well! It's so scary right now but I promise it gets so much more manageable when your mum has a treatment plan.

It sounds like a small lump and oestrogen positive is good as it gives more treatment options. My mum was in her 50s at diagnosis with a grade 3 lump (grade 3 is common if younger).

She will have a lot of tests in a short space of time, which seems scary but each test gives a better picture of what she's dealing with and how best to treat it.

My mum had a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy done within 3 weeks of diagnosis. Then 6 sessions of chemo over 18 weeks. This was tough but very doable for her. Then had another operation (axillary node clearance) to remove about 21 lymph nodes, and finally 4 weeks of radiotherapy.

It's a long hard slog but outcomes are brilliant these days, sending you strength.x

Sincere thanks, to everyone who's commented. I've read each and everyone's message

Sorry your mum and you are going through is. I was diagnosed last year so understand the terms now, never really heard them beforehand!
As others have said grade is how fast the cancer is growing. They won't stage until they have the results back post surgery.
The sentinel lymph node biopsy is standard procedure if they can't see anything in the lymph nodes from the imaging as they want to make sure.
I had a CT and bone scan after surgery as there were a few pesky cancer cells in the sentinel node biopsy. This is all standard practice.
As for the treatment, I had a mastectomy, mine was also hormone positive, grade 2. I had chemo due to lymph node involvement and my age (46 at diagnosis). Chemo isn't always used in hormone positive cancers. I then had a second op to remove the remaining lymph nodes then 15 radiotherapy sessions. I am having injections which have forced me into menopause along with tablets called Letrozole to reduce my oestrogen even further.
I know it seems like a long and difficult road ahead and it all seems so overwhelming too but taking each step at a time helped me. I hope her treatment goes smoothly.

Hi, I'm not a medic, sorry, but I hope to share some experience to provide some comfort.
I know how stressful it is as my mum had breast cancer.
So my mums experience and initial diagnosis was similar, only lump much larger - I don't have a number but saw/felt it and would say it was about 40mm.
Mum had lumpectomy and lymph nodes removed. It showed the cancer had got part way along the nodes but not the whole way (they are apparently like a filter, a chain of nodes and the cancer hadn't got to the 'end'). So it was decided chemo was not necessary, only radio. That was tiring but otherwise not invasive. She was also oestrogen receptor +ve so was on medication for years after which strips out the oestrogen that otherwise feeds the cancer.
Anyway, she was checked 12 monthly for a few years and now, 13 years later, it's just a distant memory. She's fine
We hear breast cancer and fear so much but outcomes can be really successful now.
Wishing you lots of strength and a similar outcome

Yes my mum also had a CT and a bone scan, then later on she had an ultrasound of her liver as they saw something on a scan, but it turned out it was just a cyst and nothing to worry about.

All the tests and scans can seem overwhelming, but it's great that they go to such efforts to check they haven't missed anything. My mum was initially told her cancer was triple negative (not responsive to any hormones) but after her op pathology said that it was mildly oestrogen positive so she's now on tamoxifen for 5 years too.

It reads as exactly what I had apart from mine was 9mm.
I had no node involvement a lumpectomy, radio and chemo (chemo was because it was fairly aggressive and I was 27)
I am now 54. No further issues.
Hope that gives you a little comfort.

Oh thank you everyone. I'm so glad to see the positive outcomes. Thanks, so much for sharing

I don’t know but just wanted to say I wish her all the best

Thank you

How can a breast cancer be oestrogen positive when my mums had a total hysterectomy?

I also had breast cancer, nearly 8 years ago when I was fifty. An 11mm lump, I had a lumpectomy or WLE, sentinel node biopsy which was clear followed by radiotherapy and hormone treatment. It’s scary at the time but it all happened so fast and I had excellent care, I hope your mum has a similar experience.
The body can still produce oestrogen after menopause, natural or surgical. It’s a bit complicated to explain but easy enough to Google, if she has hormone therapy there is a drug that is just for post menopausal women which targets oestrogen produced without ovaries. It’s called anastrozole.

Yes, the body still produces oestrogen after menopause. I think about 70% of breast cancers are oestrogen positive. The drugs used in post menopausal women (natural or forced) are aromatose inhibitors and they prevent the body from producing the oestrogen. Anastrazole as mentioned above is one, Letrozole is the one I'm on and there are some others.
The Macmillan and Breast Cancer Now websites have some info about these drugs and the different breast cancer types.