Rare cancer

[OL224]

My original diagnosis was Invasive Ductal Carcinoma...after my surgery (mastectomy) my pathology came back as small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, primary to the breast, no evidence of ductal or glandular carcinoma.  Triple Negative for ER, PR and HER2.  Have you ever seen this?  My oncologist has not and has told me its rare, my reports, etc. are being sent to a pathologist that has actually written articles on this particular cancer of the breast.  My question is if you've seen this, what am I looking at for staging, etc. I know my grading is 9/9 and 3 for Bloom Richardson.  My tumor was 5cm, but with no lymph node involvment.  My internal mammory lymph node is enlarged (which they told me that before my surgery) So now my question is even though the lymph nodes under my arm were clean..would it make a difference with these other lymph nodes because the cancer I have is rare for the Breast..should that be looked at more closely?  Thanks for your time.  

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

You need to discuss with your doctor about the further line of management in your case.

You would need to discuss about the surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy required in case of a patient with small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma.

Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma is an aggressive neoplasm for which no treatment protocol is defined with certainty due to the small number of cases described. Modified radical mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection seems to be the treatment of choice, with adjuvant radiation, chemotherapy, or both, based on the clinical stage and presence of metastasis.

Let us know about what your doctor advises and if you have any other doubts.

Also post us about how you are doing.

Hope this helps.

Regards.