uterine cancer questions about best choices

RubeG · New User Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Posts: 1

Hi. A friend of mine has Stage 1C Grade 2 uterine cancer. She doesn't have computer access and, now, following her hysterectomy, she has questions about her options which I said I'd post for her to get some info from other survivors with similar cancer/experience.

After the hysterectomy the pathology came back saying that the cancer was 'just past halfway into the uterine wall,' and that the cancer cells had penetrated blood vessels. She is trying to decide whether or not to do the surgery to have lymph nodes removed from her abdomen and groin and analyzed. She has concerns about the effects/impact of lymph node removal and is trying to weigh them against the usefulness/importance of the info that they will yield. Here are her questions:

For women who've done this procedure--what have been the side effects you've experienced following the lymph node removal?

What's known (or has been experienced by survivors out there) about the long-term effects of lymph node removal?

What are the odds of re-occurance of the cancer elsewhere when cells have penetrated blood vessels? Any statistics or studies on this would be great to know about.

Finally--given what is known, is it better to wait for re-occurance vs. removing 20% of the lymph nodes from her abdomen/groin?

Thanks to any and all who can provide info, share experience, or point me to studies, sites or stats

ktocs · New User Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Posts: 2

I went into surgery with the understanding that if they felt it were necessary, they would also remove my lymph nodes. Since the tumor was almost the full size of my uterus, they went ahead and removed the lymph nodes in the my groin and aorta area. The uterine cancer was Stage 1b grade 1. Luckily, the pathology report on the 20 lymph nodes they removed came back as all clear, but there was a slight vascular invasion, so my doctor said it was probably a good thing they took them out or I might have been looking at a second operation. I did, however, agree to 3 brachytherapy treatments afterwards.

But as to your question about the lymph node removal, I would say that has been the least of any concerns I've had since surgery. At first I wasn't crazy about the idea of no longer having lymph nodes there, but since then, it's been the least of my thoughts. I can say I've noticed nothing unusual due to their being gone.

I'd suggest she have them removed so as to decrease the chance of cancer cells remaining in the lymphatic system, which is never a good thing.

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