My mother has recently been diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. She had a modified radical mastectomy on March 1 as well as 7 lymph nodes removed. Her pathology report has left us with questions.
To begin with, her "addendum diagnosis" read 2 of 7 lymph nodes with metastatic infiltrating ductal carcinoma. So, has her diagnosis been changed?
She had a biopsy and what we thought was only 1 tumor, but the surgery revealed 2 smaller tumors, which has increased her primary tumor to a pT2. the regional lumph nodes say pN1 - metastasis in 2 of 7 axillary lymph nodes, metastatic deposits greater than 2 mm. Can you tell us if this is good or bad?
On her biopsy and final pathology report it says distant metastasis is pMX - which means cannot be assessed. Is it normal to not be able to assess as this stage? This means we cannot determine the stage her cancer is in - correct?
On the Margins section - it says uninvolved by invasive carcinoma - translation?
Distance of tumor from closes margin - .6 cm (deep margin) - again translation?
lymphatic invasion - it reads absent - I think this is good, right?
Microcalcification - present in nonneoplastic tissue - translation?
I will look forward to your reply. Thank you in advance for your assistance.