Stage 1b or 2a???

[gqmom]

Hello everyone,
My pathology report reads: T1aN1miM0. My doctor told me that I was stage 2a, but the information on the American Cancer Society website says it would be 1b. Any thoughts??

Stage IB: T0 or T1, N1mi, M0: The tumor is 2 cm or less across (or is not found) (T0 or T1) with micrometastases in 1 to 3 axillary lymph nodes (the cancer in the lymph nodes is greater than 0.2mm across and/or more than 200 cells but is not larger than 2 mm)(N1mi). The cancer has not spread to distant sites (M0).

[Becky]

Because of the presence of the smallest amount of cancer in a node, you are Stage 2A. This also happened to me as I had a Stage 1 size tumor but micro mets in one node. Have heart - I am almost 8 years out and did not have Herceptin with chemo as it was not yet available (but I did have Herceptin alone starting about 4 1/2 months after chemo ended because then it was available).

There are studies that show that micro mets to a node barely up your statistics. For me, it enabled me to convince someone to give me the Herceptin - albeit late.