I recently had a lumpectomy and saw my surgeon for f/u and results of path report. He was not very talkative as far as expaining to me what the results meant. In other words when I asked what grade my type of cancer would be considered he stated I just told you it was metastatic. Ok and that means what? From what I've been reading it could still be II,III, or IV right? Path report from sample of left breast mass (3.2cm poorly differentiated invasive ductal carcinoma), left axillary lymph node (metastatic carcinoma in one of three lymph nodes) and left breast sentinel node (no tumor seen). Path report states the following:Histologic type: IDC, Total Nottingham Score Grade III, pT2, pn1a: metastasis in 1 to 3 axillary lymph nodes, extracapsular nodal extension present, pMX, margins uninvolved by invasive carcionoma. ER - 0%, PR - 0%, Ki-67-91%, and HER-2/neu - 2.7 (overexpression).
Based on this would you be able to give me some idea of what stage I am? Does metastatic automatically mean stage IV? and if so, is it because it spread to the lymph nodes? I have an appt with the oncologist next week. I just want to be prepared.
Thanks in advance for your help.