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A: That is too early to tell yet. If the pathology report of his lumpectomy shows only a small cancer that has been completely removed then all I would suggest would be postsurgical radiation therapy. Please let me read his pathology report when available. You can copy it here.
You can also reach me on: http://www.lifestylerescue.com/expert/health-fitness-advice/dr-claes-gustaf/128 There is no restriction to the number of questions there. ...
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A: please consider her seeing a breast surgical oncologist. she is dealing with cancer... having a primary care doctor who does some surgery usually isn''t how this is taken care of. that said, she has stage 2 breast cancer. her pathology implies that there still may be some residual cancer there and that re-excision may be needed. no sentinel node biopsy was done either so that should be probably performed. the pathologist will check to see if the tumor is hormone receptor positive. if so then the medical oncologist may give her hormonal therapy (think of it as anti-estrogen therapy-- an aromatase inhibitor) for treatment. there was evidence in the tumor that it has blood vessels and lymphatic vessels enabling it to possibly travel elsewhere....
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A: a bit complicated to read some of this. that said, she has stage 3 breast cancer. locally advanced disease. hormone receptor positive so usually hormonal therapy given. Herceptin sometimes also given. her health status in general would determine if she gets chemo and how much benefit it provides. radiation as well....
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A: this pathology would seem to be enough. if she is underway with chemo then the breast should improve too. see if she is a candidate for doing laser ablation of this small liver met as well....
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A: cancer can still return after it has been treated. nothing is 100%. it is was there there would be zero mortality and zero recurrence rate for breast cancer. not sure what the rationale is in doing mastectomy though if the question of cancer returning is nodal only. For support, someone should accompany her to appointments and be her record keeper/note taker so she can concentrate on listening and not having to write everything down. get email addresses of friends and family and send out notifications to everyone all at once how she is doing/updates rather than her spending hours on the phone repeating the same information. bake casseroles and stick in her freezer. babysit. ask her how you can help....
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A: Your situation is the type that is ideal for presentation at a breast cancer case conference. So ask your surgeon to present you! breast centers hold case conferences (sometimes called tumor boards) where cases that are considered borderline and controversial are presented so that a group of surgeons, medical oncologists and radiation oncologists can render their opinions and advice for presentation back to the patient. The pathology slides are reviewed as well as your clinical history and your mammograms/breast images.This way you get the advantage of a multidisciplinary team approach to plan your treatment regarding chemo, radiation and hormonal therapy....
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A: very rare type so data is quite limited. you have her in the hands of good folks. both comprehensive breast centers there. check on www.pubmed.com for more info....
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A: no doublt shocking and disappointing to get such news. though you clearly had stage 1 breast cancer with favorable prognostic factors, there are no guarantees that women with such pathology will do well and not need chemo. some doctors would have given you chemo solely based on your young age. others might have done oncotypeDX to see what your recurrence score would be. we can''t look backwards though and rewind the video of your life. we must press forward now. good that the bone pain is subsiding. if some lesions remain they may treat them with radiation or even putting you on a different chemo drug or possibly a different hormonal therapy. even getting ovaries out is possible....
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A: There are windows of opportunity to provide the baby safety and your wife treatment during the pregnancy. she needs to be in the hands of a comprehensive NCI designated cancer center though where they will have experts very familiar with dealing with pregnancy simultaneous to breast cancer treatment. if you are within a few hours of us please consider bringing her to us. just call 443-287-2778. Her breast cancer at this point is stage 2 and possibly 3. an ultrasound of her lymph nodes needs to be done to see how they look at this point too. hormone receptors needs to be done to see if the cancer is stimulated to grow by estrogen or not. many things to consider... so don''t hastily do anything based on just one opinion. you need a surgical...
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A: in general scans are not to be done for screening of mets. symptoms are to be relied on instead. having mammography of other breast annually and seeing doctor twice a year. you didn''t mention hormone receptors or Her2neu. these factor in for prognosis. that said, ask your doctor to use www.adjuvantonline.com to calculate risk of recurrence....
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