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What does Vascular invasion mean?

jjchoccy
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Hi,

I received a copy of the letter my consultant has sent to my gp with my inital diagnosis of invasive lobular carcinoma and on it said 'vascular invasion present'. The breast care nurse said it means cells have seeped into the blood vessels but until we have the rest of my results back they won't know if it has spread to the nodes or anywhere else. Has anyone had vascular invasion and it not spread to thier lymph nodes? It sounds very scary! Does it also mean chemo is more likely too if it has the potential to spread? 

  • I'm sorry to hear about your potential diagnosis JJchoccy and for the worry the mention of 'vascular invasion present' is causing.

    Hopefully some of our members who have contended with this as part of their invasive lobular carcinoma diagnosis will share their experiences with you soon but if you'd like to speak with one of our cancer nurses about this, you can contact them on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m. They are very insightful and will do all they can to explain what this means and answer any other questions you may have.

    I know this must be a very worrying and stressful time but we're thinking of you JJchoccy and hope you won't have to wait too much longer for your results to come through.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

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    Hi jjchoccy, just wanted to wish you all the best for your results and hope that they are encouraging. It's so difficult and mighty stressful having just bits and pieces of information and not the full picture. I've been trying to deal with once stage of diagnosis at a time but my imagination has other ideas! Anyway, we've got some lovely spring sunshine here and I hope you're enjoying the same xx

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    Hello!

    I know this is a really old post but wanted to just see if yourself or anyone had any further information.

    I too just saw my histo-pathology report and its mentioned “Vascular invasion” but also clear margins and Sentinel Lymph nodes negative 0/5. I left the meeting feeling positive but they didnt mention vascular invasion at all in the meeting. What is it? and what does it mean? as Im now freaking out a little bit that Im going to need to be even more terrified and paranoid of secondary/recurrence than I already am as its swimming around in my blood stream. 

    Im going to be having chemo but in the meeting this was very much so up to me really as my BCN and Surgeon felt I should push for Oncotype as they were comfortable all the cancer was removed in surgery but I worried it would just delay chemo. 

    Any info on Vascular invasion but negative lymphnodes would be really appreciated. 

    Thank you xx

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