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Mucinous Ovarian Cancer Stage 1C
Hello,
My name is Mike and wife (31 years old) was recently diagnosed with stage 1C (grade 2) Mucinous Ovarian Cancer. She had a 17cm cyst removed along with the right ovary and tub it was attached to 11 days ago. we met with oncologist yesterday who said all additional testing came back negative except for the pelvic cul-de-sac. He said there was a spec of cancer cells on it, but the cancer did not look invasive at all, and they believe it was due to detached tumor fragment or a displaced tumor. This means that either during removal of the tumor, a very small piece of the tumor dropped into her pelvic cul-de-sac, or when handling the tumor and slides outside of her body with pathologist, a spec might have dropped on this specific slide. They are still saying stage 1C, and besides this issue, they believe they got all the cancer out. The Oncologist made it sound like we will never know, and that the chemo should take care of any droppings if any. This sounds pretty rare, since the main concern is usually the washings coming back positive for cancer due to leaking while draining the cysts, but in this situation those were negative. Weird thing is that her CA 125 was normal prior to surgery, but her CA 19-9 was high. They said they want her to do a Colonoscopy to make sure it didn't originate in her GI track, Dr. said this is highly unlikely since she did not have symptoms.
A few Questions
1.) Does anyone have any experience with Mucinous? Is it True that Chemo really doesn't do much?
2.) Are high CA 19-9 levels common with this type of Ovarian Cancer?
3.) Is the detached tumor fragment a common issue when it comes to stage 1C? when you look up it just mentions rupturing or leaking, not this scenario.
4.) Should we be concerned that this originated somewhere else (Colon, GI, Pancreas)?
This is a total shock, especially after her mom went into remission for stage 3 breast cancer 6 months ago. We thought we were done, but now she is the unlucky one. Any input would be great.
Thanks!
My name is Mike and wife (31 years old) was recently diagnosed with stage 1C (grade 2) Mucinous Ovarian Cancer. She had a 17cm cyst removed along with the right ovary and tub it was attached to 11 days ago. we met with oncologist yesterday who said all additional testing came back negative except for the pelvic cul-de-sac. He said there was a spec of cancer cells on it, but the cancer did not look invasive at all, and they believe it was due to detached tumor fragment or a displaced tumor. This means that either during removal of the tumor, a very small piece of the tumor dropped into her pelvic cul-de-sac, or when handling the tumor and slides outside of her body with pathologist, a spec might have dropped on this specific slide. They are still saying stage 1C, and besides this issue, they believe they got all the cancer out. The Oncologist made it sound like we will never know, and that the chemo should take care of any droppings if any. This sounds pretty rare, since the main concern is usually the washings coming back positive for cancer due to leaking while draining the cysts, but in this situation those were negative. Weird thing is that her CA 125 was normal prior to surgery, but her CA 19-9 was high. They said they want her to do a Colonoscopy to make sure it didn't originate in her GI track, Dr. said this is highly unlikely since she did not have symptoms.
A few Questions
1.) Does anyone have any experience with Mucinous? Is it True that Chemo really doesn't do much?
2.) Are high CA 19-9 levels common with this type of Ovarian Cancer?
3.) Is the detached tumor fragment a common issue when it comes to stage 1C? when you look up it just mentions rupturing or leaking, not this scenario.
4.) Should we be concerned that this originated somewhere else (Colon, GI, Pancreas)?
This is a total shock, especially after her mom went into remission for stage 3 breast cancer 6 months ago. We thought we were done, but now she is the unlucky one. Any input would be great.
Thanks!
Mike, I'm sorry you and your wife are going through this. I'm sorry to say that I don't have much to offer. I did not have ovarian cancer but am on this forum because I was over-treated for a 9.5cm benign mucinous ovarian cyst. My gynecologist removed all my female organs even though the frozen section results were negative / benign.
1) I don't know about the need or lack thereof for chemo in this situation. But if the cancer was encapsulated in the cyst and this spec from the cul-de-sac was a "mishandling" situation then it would seem that chemo shouldn't be needed and can cause more harm than good.
2) I'm not familiar with the CA 19-9 test but the CA-125 is not reliable for diagnosing ovarian cancer as there are too many false positives and false negatives.
3) I don't know
4) Ovarian cancer can originate in other organs but I think it's rare.
I wish you and your wife the best in getting proper treatment and I hope there's no recurrence.
1) I don't know about the need or lack thereof for chemo in this situation. But if the cancer was encapsulated in the cyst and this spec from the cul-de-sac was a "mishandling" situation then it would seem that chemo shouldn't be needed and can cause more harm than good.
2) I'm not familiar with the CA 19-9 test but the CA-125 is not reliable for diagnosing ovarian cancer as there are too many false positives and false negatives.
3) I don't know
4) Ovarian cancer can originate in other organs but I think it's rare.
I wish you and your wife the best in getting proper treatment and I hope there's no recurrence.
2 Comments
Thank You!
In January I went to gynecologist she did ultrasound & sent me to oncologist. I had cyst on right ovary size of a melon. March 9th I had complete hysterectomy that included several biopsies & my appendix was also removed. Pathology report came back that I had stage 1 ovarian cancer (mucinous borderline tumor). This type of cancer was mild & no chemo is required. I will have to see oncologist for 2 years every 6 months. Pray for good outcome for your wife.
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