In cancer staging terminology Mom's breast cancer stage is described as PT2N0M0, where,
P is Pathological stage i.e post surgery on pathological examination of the tumour rather than C, clinical examination.
T2 - Grade II tumour
N0 - Lymph nodes un-impacted
M0 - No metastasis i.e no further spread in the body
Next couple of days as I met couple of medical oncologists it became clear to me that this wasn't a bad state to be in. This is considered early stage and is amongst rare detection in India but is common in the west where the awareness of Breast cancer is high.
We met Dr. Shekhar Patil 2 days later on 14th Nov. at Bangalore Institute of Oncology. This hospital has couple of branches, one on Double road Shanthi Nagar and other on Miller's road. The consultations happen in the later branch. Since the appointments of Dr. Patil were full for almost a week we went there in the walkin batch which gets a chance post 4'o clock in the evening.
Dr. Patil explained in detail on the course of treatment for patients with Mom's stage and age (She is 62 yrs. of age). Radiation therapy is mandatory and so is 5 yrs. of Hormone therapy. For the later he prescribed Armidex(Anastrozole) tablets. These are newer estrogen suppressors than the popular Tamoxifin tablets with lesser side effects.
As for Chemotherapy he mentioned that there were both lines of thought equally prevelant, those who favour Chemo and those who don't at this age and stage. But recently there are couple of new tests that have come up on which the judgement could be based. These are:
1) Oncotype Dx - Details http://www.healthsearches.org/Categories_of_Q&A/Diagnosis/1326.php
This is a very effective indicator. But this is very expensive, approx Rs. 1.6 lac and conducted only in US.
2) A lesser comprehensive and inexpensive test is Ki-67 tumour marker test. This also gives reasonable indication. This is conducted in Bangalore as well.
He makes his judgement on the basis of one of these and asked us to choose.
I decided to go with the later. Since I already had some idea of this test I had brought with me the tumour tissue block that was given after surgery and histopathology tests. The BIO lab verified the block and found it good enough for the test. The results were expected in 3 days.
We waited with bated breath for the same. 18th Nov we got the report which mentioned that the "Ki-67 proliferative index was around 5%". Met the doctor the same day and he mentioned that the value is very low. If it's around 50% then only Chemo is recommended.
Hence no Chemo for Mom. We were happy.
P is Pathological stage i.e post surgery on pathological examination of the tumour rather than C, clinical examination.
T2 - Grade II tumour
N0 - Lymph nodes un-impacted
M0 - No metastasis i.e no further spread in the body
Next couple of days as I met couple of medical oncologists it became clear to me that this wasn't a bad state to be in. This is considered early stage and is amongst rare detection in India but is common in the west where the awareness of Breast cancer is high.
We met Dr. Shekhar Patil 2 days later on 14th Nov. at Bangalore Institute of Oncology. This hospital has couple of branches, one on Double road Shanthi Nagar and other on Miller's road. The consultations happen in the later branch. Since the appointments of Dr. Patil were full for almost a week we went there in the walkin batch which gets a chance post 4'o clock in the evening.
Dr. Patil explained in detail on the course of treatment for patients with Mom's stage and age (She is 62 yrs. of age). Radiation therapy is mandatory and so is 5 yrs. of Hormone therapy. For the later he prescribed Armidex(Anastrozole) tablets. These are newer estrogen suppressors than the popular Tamoxifin tablets with lesser side effects.
As for Chemotherapy he mentioned that there were both lines of thought equally prevelant, those who favour Chemo and those who don't at this age and stage. But recently there are couple of new tests that have come up on which the judgement could be based. These are:
1) Oncotype Dx - Details http://www.healthsearches.org/Categories_of_Q&A/Diagnosis/1326.php
This is a very effective indicator. But this is very expensive, approx Rs. 1.6 lac and conducted only in US.
2) A lesser comprehensive and inexpensive test is Ki-67 tumour marker test. This also gives reasonable indication. This is conducted in Bangalore as well.
He makes his judgement on the basis of one of these and asked us to choose.
I decided to go with the later. Since I already had some idea of this test I had brought with me the tumour tissue block that was given after surgery and histopathology tests. The BIO lab verified the block and found it good enough for the test. The results were expected in 3 days.
We waited with bated breath for the same. 18th Nov we got the report which mentioned that the "Ki-67 proliferative index was around 5%". Met the doctor the same day and he mentioned that the value is very low. If it's around 50% then only Chemo is recommended.
Hence no Chemo for Mom. We were happy.
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