Last month while in my favorite place waiting impatiently for my mammogram, I read a brochure for the newly diagnosed BC patient curious to know what they are telling people these days. I learned two things:
Sentinel node biopsies are done only on patients with tumors less than 3 cm. Now this sounds like a step backwards. I guess I fit the guidelines because my tumor at first discovery measured 1.6 cm at its largest dimension. By the time they got around to removing it, it was 3 cm and had multiplied into a second tumor. Good thing that they didn't remeasure it or I would have had the full node dissection and would suffer for the rest of my life from its consequences. Of course, if they had remeasured it, then maybe I would not have needed 2 separate surgeries. I seemed to get 'special attention'. During 'breast cancer education day', I was removed from my fellow patients to have my nodes looked at closely by ultrasound. Grossly they seemed normal but they would not rule out micrometastases. I thought the new thinking was even if they found micrometastases, there was nothing to be gained by a full nodal dissection.
BRAC1 testing is to be done on estrogen negative patients less than 60 regardless of family history. This was not offered to me as I could not pinpoint any family member who had cancer before the age of 60 on either side. It is a dominant gene so to have it, I would have needed to get it from my mother or father. My mother and her sister had BC but were diagnosed in their 60s and 70s. There is no smoking gun on my mother's side. Inheriting it from ones father is trickier as just because they have the gene doesn't mean they would get cancer. Also he had few relatives but none died of cancer and the majority died of old age. But now they are finding it in women with similar histories to mine and I have daughters and granddaughters....
Bizarre Image search results. Nerd as I am, I love Statcounter and look at it often. My number one hit these days is a post entitled Edelweiss. I sometimes look for keyphrases that lead to my blog. One was biracial baby with Downs' and it came up with a picture of Maya. Although she is biracial, she does not remotely appear to have Downs'. Another image search was huge feet. This is what they came up with:
Sigh....
Sentinel node biopsies are done only on patients with tumors less than 3 cm. Now this sounds like a step backwards. I guess I fit the guidelines because my tumor at first discovery measured 1.6 cm at its largest dimension. By the time they got around to removing it, it was 3 cm and had multiplied into a second tumor. Good thing that they didn't remeasure it or I would have had the full node dissection and would suffer for the rest of my life from its consequences. Of course, if they had remeasured it, then maybe I would not have needed 2 separate surgeries. I seemed to get 'special attention'. During 'breast cancer education day', I was removed from my fellow patients to have my nodes looked at closely by ultrasound. Grossly they seemed normal but they would not rule out micrometastases. I thought the new thinking was even if they found micrometastases, there was nothing to be gained by a full nodal dissection.
BRAC1 testing is to be done on estrogen negative patients less than 60 regardless of family history. This was not offered to me as I could not pinpoint any family member who had cancer before the age of 60 on either side. It is a dominant gene so to have it, I would have needed to get it from my mother or father. My mother and her sister had BC but were diagnosed in their 60s and 70s. There is no smoking gun on my mother's side. Inheriting it from ones father is trickier as just because they have the gene doesn't mean they would get cancer. Also he had few relatives but none died of cancer and the majority died of old age. But now they are finding it in women with similar histories to mine and I have daughters and granddaughters....
Bizarre Image search results. Nerd as I am, I love Statcounter and look at it often. My number one hit these days is a post entitled Edelweiss. I sometimes look for keyphrases that lead to my blog. One was biracial baby with Downs' and it came up with a picture of Maya. Although she is biracial, she does not remotely appear to have Downs'. Another image search was huge feet. This is what they came up with:
1 comment:
I was denied the first time but when the guidelines changed my insurance paid for most of the test for BRAC 1&2
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