Mom diagnosed yesterday

[Borgs]

My mom had her surgery yesterday and unfortunately the tumor was cancer.  Needless to say, we are all upset.  She did have breast cancer a few years ago however, so we were a little more prepared this time than last.  I wrote a few weeks ago.  She is post-menopausal, had a complex cyst and she started to develop a lot of fluid within the last two to three weeks.  The cyst was the size of a soccer ball and she had over 4 liters of ascites.  Doctor said he did not feel or see any cancer in any of the other surrounding organs, and that from his eye, it seemed to be totally entombed in the tumor, and that other than the huge mass on the ovary, the other ovary looked as if to be healthy tissue.  He said you can never tell though and we will have to wait for pathology with all the biopsy samples.  He said it grew extremely fast and the fluid rapidly onset within the last few weeks.  Questions- can we guess the stage of this thing now, and how long will it take to get the path results?      

[Borgs]

Update: It turns out the doctor's initial reading of the PATH reports were wrong.  The Tumor was very large and aggressive, was on the surface of the ovary, was in the other ovary, but was no where else (no cancer in ascites, or other abdominal organs).  However, the path reports could NOT determine if the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes, so she can't be staged yet.  A new GYN/ONC is sending her for a CT scan, and then might have to operate again to remove/biopsy the lymph nodes.  It seems this could either be stage 1 or 3 cancer. (she had a partial hys. 20 years ago and a tubal).  My question is, if cancer is to spread, where is the first place it usually spreads?  Can we assume that if it hadn't spread to the ascites, or other surrounding organs surfaces, like in her case, that it didn't make it into the lymph nodes also?  Or is the lymph nodes one of the earliest places it tends to spread, (it would spread there before spreading to ascites, which doesn't make sense to me, or other pelvic abdominal organs), or is there usually no rhyme or reason to where to the cancer will spread first?  Many thanks for your responses.

[Annekathryn Goodman, M.D.]

hi There
thank you for the follow up. The standard for an epithelial ovarian cacner is to give 6 to 8 treatments (cycles) of carboplatin and taxol.
It sounds like your mother is n good hands
best wishes

[Borgs]

Mom had her path reports read today.  Relatively speaking, good news I guess- stage II.  Cancer was in both ovaries, with no spread anywhere else, and surprisingly, no cancer in the 4 liters of ascites removed.  Doctor said she was very fortunate in that it was found in a relatively early stage.  She had a partial hysterectomy and tubal about 20 years ago so I guess she was fortunate there were no other organs in which it could have spread in that close vicinity.  She will be talking about chemo at her next appointment next week.  Thoughts?      

[Annekathryn Goodman, M.D.]

Hi There, It usually takes 7 to 10 days to get a full pathology report back after surgery. Stage is determined by the reports. It is scary and waiting for the reports is hard! Please let us know what you learn
take care