Borderline Cancer

[Jo33]

I have just had a large ovarian cyst (30 x 25cm) removed along with my left ovary and fallopian tube. My consultant said that he didn't think it looked cancerous . They sent it away and my ovary for tests. I went to see him for the results and was told that it was borderline and they couln't tell me if it was more benign or mallignant. It has had to be sent to somewhere else for further investigation.
Has anyone else been told of borderline cancer? I don't know what to make of it.
My consultant has told me I will have to have a hysterectomy but when depends on what they find and I may need chemo.
I am going back next week for the results but I am really worried, I don't understand why the tests don't show what it is.

Jo33

[gls2824]

I had a hysterectomy on January 29, 2009 due to a 10cm mass on my ovary.  It wound up to be an "atypical proliferating tumor" also known as "borderline."

My doctor, who is a nationally known gynoc, told me it is NOT cancer.  This is based on years of watching these types of tumors.  He said years ago it was considered cancer and treated as such until they learned that it doesn't behave like cancer and that the usual cancer treatment did more harm than good.  My treatment is 6 month follow ups probably for the rest of my life.  

There's a 3-4% of recurrance, usually in 20+ years, and the treatment would be the same -- removal of the mass.

The cancer could have come independently from another source.  I wish your wife the best with her treatment.

[nyc lady]

Most borderlines follow the same protocol as later staged cancers, for the first 2 years appts are every 3 months, and then years 2 to 5 every 6 months.  
There are many doctors that will tell you that borderline will not develop into full blown cancer and others that will disagree.  It could be that the cancer was already in the other ovary at the time....who really knows.

Right now I would concentrate on getting her through the surgery and through the chemo.  After sugery she will be staged and the doctors might have more answers to your questions.

Be certain that her surgery is preformed by a GYN/Oncologists and don't be afraid to ask the doctors questions.

Best of luck to both you and your wife, keep in touch and let us know how it goes.  There are people on this forum that are a wealth of knowledge and can help you and your wife through this.  You will get better responses if you start a new post, vs adding to one that is a few old.

Pam

[twizzian]

2 years ago my wife had an ovarian cyst (15cm) and we were told it was borderline, she had the cyst and right ovary removed. The question is' she had a followup one month after the operation and was given the all clear.
No other follow up appointments were given or advised. she now has Ovarian cancer and is about to undergo a full Hysterectomy and chemo will follow after.
Have the hospital Gynae team, or someone made a fundamental error here by not given her 6 monthly /yearly follow ups, scans etc.
They have only told us she is very very unlucky to have developed this after the intial surgery.

Please advise someone

Twizzian

[Casey06]

I was also diagnosed with a seromuconous borderline tumor. I also had mucous in the abdominal cavity that was sampled by doctor and sent to cytology and mine had no sign of malignanacy in the fluid. You need to find this out. Get a copy of the complete pathology report from your doctor and ask him this in particular. Also, I had read and was told to get a second opinion on the tumor and the fluid or pelvic wash, because sometimes (approx. 10%) origninal pathology is wrong with borderline tumors. They say to find a path lab that is very familiar with these borderline tumors (like a major cancer center).

If the pelvic wash or mucus from abdomin is indeed clear of borderline cells, this is very good and you have stage 1A LMP tumor and no further treatment is necessary, just follow-up with CA-125.
If pervic wash is positive for questionable cells than they may consider chemo.

All and all an LMP or borderline prognosis is excellant (99%-89% five year survival) relative to full malignant OC.

http://www.nccn.org/patients/patient_gls/_english/asp/intro.asp?pg=ovarian&idChart=7

[Jo33]

Hi been to the hospital today to see an onclogist for my results, just thought I'd let you know what they said.

Basically they still don't know 100% what it is, the tests are still coming back as borderline. The tumor was a mucus producing tumor (urgh) and they found some of this mucus in the tissue they took from my stomach which isn't normal but he didn;t really elaborate on that too much. Does anyone know what this could possibly mean?

They are saying it is something called a well defferentiated cancer which they think was confined to the ovary & cyst. Ive since looked on the internet to see what it means and its basically a low grade cancer or a borderline cancer.

They are just going to monitor me for now with CA125 & CA19 -9 blood tests for tumor markers and CT scans, they hope to see my tumor marker results start to come down now if they don't i will have to have chemo, but they are going to monitor this over a period of time. They are not sure if any of the fluid from the cyst may be hiding somewhere inside me.

They have said that if I want to have kids it is something I need to do now but think I might wait for the internal stitches to heal first! Then the hysterectomy will follow after that.

I feel more positive now but don't want to think that everything is OK like I did last time until I've been back to see if my scan is OK and my bloods results are starting to come down.

[chelan3]

MPSC is a rare type.  They often still use chemo and/or surgery as treatment.  Chemo isn't very effective on slow growing tumors and borderline tumors are slow growing.  
Glad to hear you are seeing a gyn-onc.