Guest guest Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Sadly, my aunt has also recently been dx with BC. Her tumor is 1.1cm and they are talking about sentinel node biopsy. My cancer is advanced, so that was not an option for me. My question is: can one do the sentinel node biopsy prior to/ separately from lumpectomy? so that if SLN were positive, you could choose to do mastectomy instead? or do they just do the SNL at same time as lumpectomy. Thanks a million. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Hi , Most women have the SNB & lumpectomy or mastectomy in one operation. The problem with a lumpectomy is that the surgeon can't tell until after the pathology report whether all the tumor was removed (meaning there has to be a clean margin of at least 2mm surrounding the tumor). If your aunt doesn't want to deal with a possible 2nd operation (re-excision) if the margins aren't clean, she may want to go with a mastectomy and SNB. I think this depends on how she feels about treatment and a mastectomy vs. a lumpectomy. Most surgeons in the US recommend lumpectomy over mastectomy for the initial operation, hoping that the tumor will be completely removed. But as I found out, it's not that uncommon to not get clean margins with a lumpectomy and be faced with a 2nd operation. I still am OK with my decision to first go with a lumpectomy & SNB. I think I would have second-guessed myself way too much if I hadn't tried that option first. - racker84 wrote on 1/6/2007, 8:25 PM: > Sadly, my aunt has also recently been dx with BC. Her tumor is 1.1cm > and they are talking about sentinel node biopsy. My cancer is > advanced, so that was not an option for me. > > My question is: can one do the sentinel node biopsy prior to/ > separately from lumpectomy? so that if SLN were positive, you could > choose to do mastectomy instead? or do they just do the SNL at same > time as lumpectomy. Thanks a million. > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 hi rebbeca, i had a lumpectomy and the sentinel node taken the same day, that morning they injected the dye into my breast and leave a marker so that the surgeon can see where the node is , i was told it can take up to 2hrs for them to find the node. I did not know the results until 1 week after my op, which was great news the cancer had not spread to the nodes, so there fore i only had radiation, i was told if the nodes were not clear i would have chemo as well.i was given the choice to have masectomy or lumpectomy , as i was stage 1 i decided to go for the lumpectomy, i live in australia so things may be a tad diff where u r, but that is how it went for me, my only downfall now is i need to be on armidex, but have stopped them due to the side effects, hope this helps take care sandy in oz racker84 racker84@...> wrote: Sadly, my aunt has also recently been dx with BC. Her tumor is 1.1cm and they are talking about sentinel node biopsy. My cancer is advanced, so that was not an option for me. My question is: can one do the sentinel node biopsy prior to/ separately from lumpectomy? so that if SLN were positive, you could choose to do mastectomy instead? or do they just do the SNL at same time as lumpectomy. Thanks a million. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.