I received some good news this morning: initial pathology reports came back to show that the two removed lymph nodes and also tumor margin were completely negative for cancer. This is a very positive outcome and was expected.
There will definitely be daily radiation therapy starting in about 4 weeks, and also years of hormone therapy. I knew this, so this is also okay.
However, the news isn't officially great YET. 20 years ago, my tumor's Stage 1 invasive status would have meant automatic chemotherapy following the radiation treatments. Nowadays, THANK GOD, the tumor is DNA tested (the Oncotype Dx test) for a recurrence score. Like golf, this is one score you want to be LOW. My score on that (which we will learn in about two weeks - you guessed it... MORE WAITING) will be the deciding factor about chemo or not. Here is more information on tumor profiling.
The medical team does NOT expect my score to be high enough to warrant chemo. However, they can't say for sure because, you know, they are scientists, and I am happy that they are. Scientists have saved my life.
Two weeks. Tick tock.
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