Arrrgh!

Anne--

By now you have had your scan, so hopefully have a better sense of what you are dealing with. Hope your breast surgery goes smoothly. One thing you haven't mentioned is whether the urachal bladder cancer also had the same type of signet cells. I'm sure if they haven't already, someone needs to go back and re-examine any slides from the adenocarcinoma to verify presence/absence of those signet cells (if it wasn't mentioned in the original pathology report).

I'll be thinking of you and pulling for a speedy recovery and good outcome.

Ann (the other one, without the "e")

Hi Patricia,

We assume the original was the urachal adenocarcinoma which was removed August 2007. So if the breast lump is indeed the secondary then I will ahve bladder cancer in my breast! I had read all of that before.

I am being treated at our local hospital in Stockport (England) but if I am to have radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy I will get that at our regional cancer centre Christies hospital which is even closer to my home.

Thanks also to Leigh for your usual positive message of hope and comfort.

Off for my CT in about an hour.

(((Hugs to all)))

Anne

What came first...the chicken or the egg?
this type of cancer is found most often in the glandular cells lining the stomach. But it can also develop in the bowel, breast, pancreas, bladder, prostate or lung. Under a microscope the cells look like ‘signet rings’ and so they are known as signet cells or signet ring cells.

Cancers are named after the body organ they grow in, as well as the type of cell. So a signet cell cancer of the glandular epithelial cells lining the stomach would be 'signet cell stomach cancer'. And doctors will treat it as a stomach cancer. If the cells were in the bowel, then it would be a bowel cancer and treated as such.

So if you have this type of cancer, you need information about the main type of cancer you have, named after the place in your body where the cancer started.

Anne where are you being treated? Pat

Dear Anne,

I am so sorry that you have had another spanner thrown into the works...

Your natural curiousity to research this type of cancer probably has not helped your stress levels presently. I too would have clicked away online to get the facts and prognosis.

Getting a CT scan is a good step before they make any final decisions on your treatment plan. It is good to hear that they are just delaying the op for a day and that they will continue to remove the lump.

I hope it will all become clearer for you very soon...

Wishing lots of cuddles for you from your hubby.

Thinking of you and sending positive vibes...

Leigh

Hi Folks - me again!
Having spent the morning rushing around and getting organised for my admission tomorrow I got a 'phone call from the breastcare nurse asking me to come to the hospital ASAP. Hubby rushed home from work and off we set. The crux of the matter is that they now think the 2 tumours might be linked as further path tests show evidence of signet ring cell cancer in the breast tumour. Eek!
I now need to have a CT scan tomorrow afternoon and surgery has been postponed until Thursday as they are still keen to remove the lump quickly.
The Cons still thinks both tumours are/were primaries so what is this all about?
A quick trawl of the Internet just confirms my original suspicions that signet ring cell cancer is nasty. Maybe I shouldn't look!

Anne