Mixed Messages

The Good News: nodes are negatives, margins (that's the area around what they removed) are clear and I need no more surgery!

The Bad News: The fact that the nodes are negative actually makes treatment decisions more difficult because medical experts don't have as much research on successful treatment of this type. They have yet to figure out why 30-40% of node-negative women with invasive ductal carcinoma (that's me) go on to die from their cancers.

Even if the lymph nodes are negative, it does not mean that the cancer has not spread elsewhere--20-30% of breast cancers with negative lymph nodes have spread elsewhere. . . . In women with negative nodes, [treatment] is trickier. What we want is a way to identify the 20-30% who have microscopic cells elsewhere and not overtreat the other 70%. At present we don't have a direct way to do this." (From Dr. Love's Breast Book)

The indirect indicators are that my original area affected was small but it had the "ominous sign" of necrosis (dead cancer cells). "This usually means the cancer is growing so rapidly that it has outgrown its blood supply." (From Dr. Love's Breast Book) So my cancer is giving us mixed messages.

What are we to do with the complexity of the results? We'll discuss treatment options on Tuesday at our next Dr. visit. We're also trying to get a second opinion from Boston.

A note: Thanks for the humor. I received the first cartoon within an hour of the request and it was medical insurance humor. I'd share it with you but it's a little on the raunchy side....I've been noticing a trend toward that type of humor. Today I got one about nursing homes and condoms. Thanks everyone.