As Soon as I Got Good News (: Update

April 12, 2022

 I knew the jump to no chemo was not warranted because I still had a PET scan coming up. The PET scan starting with 50 minutes in a heated lounger with a warm blanket while some stuff that would seek out cancer went through me. 

I was then taken to a machine that did an Xray, CT scan and PET Scan. One machine did all that. It took about 1/2 hour. 

I got the report 12 hours later and don't understand it. Two of my doctors are on Easter vacation so I asked my breast surgeon (and my daughter). There are for sure a couple of scary words. Here is the important part of the test. The good news is that it hasn't spread to other organs, but I am sure they will want to do chemo (:

Study Result

Impression

IMPRESSION:

1. Focus of FDG avidity adjacent to surgical clips centrally deep within the left breast intimately associated with the chest wall musculature with a max SUV of 4.41 is of uncertain etiology or significance. Given lack of correlate on comparison MRI or mammography images this is likely postsurgical in nature. However, an additional focus of malignancy cannot entirely be excluded.

2. FDG avid 1.1 cm left level 1 axillary lymph node with max SUV of 7.39 may be reactive given recent lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy, but is suspicious for nodal metastatic disease.

3. Low-level FDG avidity associated with postsurgical changes in the medial left breast with a small likely postoperative seroma.

Electronically Signed by: Ely Wolin, MD 4/11/2022 10:11 PM

Update from my surgeon "Hi Joanne,

The PET scan was done to look for disease OUTSIDE of the surgical areas, as we expect to see "abnormal" findings immediately after surgery on a PET as the surgical sites. As such, you had findings in the surgical fields somewhat expected but are indeterminate given the recent surgery there. It did not however show any signs of disease elsewhere in the body (bone, liver, lungs, etc) which is great news. It doesn't necessarily mean you don't need chemo though as this decision will need to be made with the oncologist. But, I will say that your Oncotype score came back as low risk so it is very likely that you will be recommended to do endocrine therapy rather than chemo but mine is not the official word on this issue.

 

Hope this helps clarify. You need to see Dr. Kubicky.

 

We will be repeating imaging of the breast and axilla in 4-6 months because of the PET scan findings there, again, likely just post surgical inflammation as expected.

 

Dr. Baker