Hi ac, I can't help you with the no node problem. So sorry there.
But with regard to treatment, what your Oncologist says sounds right to me and was what I was told too.
I had lumpectomy with no clear margins and 1 sentinel node positive. There were cancer foci all through the two tissue areas removed (I had 2 lumps in different quadrants) so, like you, it was not confined to the lumps.
I was sent straight to chemo to deal with any cancer cells that might still remain in the breast tissue, followed by a mastectomy and lymph node clearance. The mastectomy showed that there had been cancer cells left behind in the lumpectomy. (But the remaining 20 lymphnodes were clear)
I was sent for radiation of the whole right side, nodes under my clavicle, in my neck near the thyroid and under the breastbone.
This is supposed to make sure that everything has been covered.
There are graphs showing the stages of breast cancer with the relevant risks of recurrence if you want to google them.
I wasn't really sure I wanted to know, but the Oncologist ran through it with me anyway.
I am tentatively classed as stage 2B, and the graph showed a 21% chance of recurrence. So that means 79% chance it won't come back.
My radiation Oncologist told me that radiation would reduce my chance of recurrence to about 10%
I guess I have to be content with that.
Do any of us really know whether the treatment has worked?
I asked my Oncologist and he said he just did everything he could and that we just had to hope, with ER +ve cancer there is never a 0 chance of it coming back.
But the Aromatase Inhibitors are supposed to be the next line of deference in preventing it.
I am ER+ve, PR+ve, HER -ve, but the first test came back equivocal (borderline) pathology from the mastectomy confirmed -ve though.
So I go onto Aromatase Inhibitors.
Your Oncologist can run through the graph with you if you want, or your Radiation Oncologist.
Maybe after you have finished your treatment you can go to the lymphodema clinic at your hospital and ask about your lack of nodes there. I understand there are people who are born with malformed lymph systems, and that even normal can vary greatly in number in different people.
