Is no news good news? I certainly hope so. Let's hope our prayers are working.

Smash responded on Page 4 Rugs

Seaux, I got my path results today. All margins negative, tumor size 2.2 cm, pT3 (stage 3), N1b 2 lymph nodes outta 26 positive.

For what seemed minor, or super early stage, at first turned out to be far more mature. Undergoing genetics testing to ascertain future probabilities . We'll see just how it correlates to the two lymph nodes .

Sharing this info so that all can be educated and hopefully more proactive and aware.

Thanks again for the continued prayers.

A little update for everyone.

I wanted to educate those that were not aware. I am the beneficiary of a newer technology for testing for cancer. It's called ctDNA .

What is that, you may ask. it stands for circulating tumor DNA. It is a test, now FDA approved, to test for traces of cancer in your blood. There are two types, tumor informed and tumor naive. The former was used on me. They tested the pathology along with bloodwork. They do a DNA test and come up with the cancer genes found in your pathology. I had four of them, cancer genes, all bad. And they use part of that information to test your blood for traces. It is significantly more accurate than the current standard of CEA. The latter is really not accurate at all, I learned. The only time it is is when the number returns a double digit result. But it's really too late by that time. I mean it's not over, but pragmatically it's merely a matter of how long, even with treatment. Then it's a decision on quality of life. The beautiful thing with ctDNA is that it gives more clear options.

What are the options? Well the test can return a negative or positive result. Positive means they detected it and it's pretty much a certainty it's present or coming back. So it means it's present in the blood. Depending on staging, it could mean a variety of therapies, depending on the cancer type. In the case of adjuvant therapies, it means it must be done. If it tests negative, it means it is not detected in the blood. Depending on staging , it could mean active surveillance or still adjuvant care. I tested negative, which is good news. While the standard of care is still adjuvant chemo officially , unofficially it gives me the opportunity to do active surveillance from here on out. I chose active surveillance since the adjuvant care in my previous cancer is very likely what caused this cancer. Genetic testing suggested this. It can only be inferred, since they will not commit to anything, of course. The data from trials and studies and the geneticist all show that continued negative results in low risk cases like myself show stellar outcomes. I am low risk due to negative margins, CT scan results (nada) and staging and ctDNA results.

I wanted folks to be aware of this new test in case it was needed. Not every oncologist will bring this up, unfortunately. We must be our very own self-advocates. I assure you, I was probably more learned with my questions to this provider than she has ever been accustomed to dealing with.

The other test, tumor naive,. is not FDA approved yet, but is still available. Basically it tests for cancer sans pathology. It is going to revolutionize early warnings for cancers, even hard to detect and diagnose cancers. It typically sees cancers 6-18 months before they even show on imaging technologies.

In my case, I figured with continued negative results and the lifestyles changes I have already made, I should be in good hands. 2 years worth of negative gets me in the clear.

Hope this helps someone in the future. Cancer sucks. I hope no one ever gets it.