Multifocal staging?

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Milly21
Milly21 Member Posts: 122 ✭
in General discussion
i was diagnosed last December with multifocal breast cancer (3 tumour,11 mm,13 mm and 3mm) my surgeon and oncologist said I was stage one as it's staged of biggest tumour. Recently I have been told by different health professional that it is staged by adding them together and now I'm stage 2. Is this correct?
they said if I was diagnosed a year ago things might have changed since then. What have other multifocal been told?

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  • MKitty68
    MKitty68 Member Posts: 261 ✭
    edited December 2017
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    when i was diagnosed on 11th April '17, I had 3 tumours, 10mm, 15mm & 25mm multifocal, mixed lobular & ductal malignant carcinomas. 
    Surgery was 23rd May '17 and they found 2 carcinomas about the same size (nurses said that the 2 smaller may have grown & joined up)- on my paperwork it had me as grade 2. 
    As I had 17 positive nodes (all of them) my stage is 3C, category 3, - when staging the amount of positive nodes seem to take precedence over the sizes of the carcinomas, however it makes sense to stage it on the largest otherwise. 

    These charts may help you make some sense of it.  - 

    https://breast-cancer.canceraustralia.gov.au/diagnosis/stages-breast-cancer

    http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/cell_grade

    I hope this helps somewhat

  • Sunshine0206
    Sunshine0206 Member Posts: 146 ✭
    edited December 2017
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    Hi there,

    My cancer was multifocal as well - dx August 2017. There was great debate by the pathologist and team as to whether it was to be staged by the entire size or the size of biggest tumour.  They also debated my nodes as I had two positive and two with micro Mets. Some classify that as 4 and some clasifyvthat as 2.

    In the end with the size and nodes - 3a.
    the radiation oncologist thought I should have been the high 2.  I don’t really care now. I just want the best treatment. 

    Cheers

  • Milly21
    Milly21 Member Posts: 122 ✭
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    Yes I shouldn't let it worry me it is what it is anyway and yes just need best treatment,I was just abit confused about how it's all staged anyway,the above links were good it made it a lot clearer,not sure why the doctors opinions are different.

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