path/blood results

[millerj1981]

right i/o last week...

Path:
1.7 x 1.3 x 1.2 mass non-seminoma

tumor is entirely submitted

malignant germ cell tumor, elements of choriocarcinoma and embryonal carcinoma with foci of teratoma. no extension beyond tunica is observed.

Blood markers PRE-surgery

HCG 148.9mIU/ml
AFP 10.5 ng/ml

blood markers 4 days POST surgery

HCG 7.6 mIU/ml
AFP 6.6 ng/mL

CT technition said she didn't see anything abnormal but awaiting doctor's response.

Can anyone draw some conclusions from experience? Thanks guys and gals for all your support!

[Margaret]

Hi Miller, good hearing from you. I hope you are starting to feel better post surgery. I hate to play doctor because clearly I am only offering an opinion at best. So understand that others here may have more/different advice or opinions.

But I think the fact that your numbers dropped post O/T shows that TC is the point of origin for your cancer. And that matters. Given that your numbers are not in normal range yet, I would think they are going to suggest some chemo to not only kill the cancer they know is there, but to kill any microscopic cancer that they can't see. I think 2-3 rounds of BEP is considered more standard and for more advanced cases they call for 4 rounds. Some doctors do not suggest the Bleo and do rounds of EP. My husband did 4 rounds of BEP so that is where my experience is.

I am sure you will get lots of great posts regarding your results.

Thinking of you!

[fuse929]

I don't have enough experience with non-seminoma to give any type of educated response, but the fact that the tumor is quite small can't be a bad thing! It looks like you may have caught it pretty early. The other guys will be able to paint you a much better picture of what to expect.

Bobby

[Fed]

You're off to a good start, and the fact that your markers have dropped is a good sign. You will likely need frequent blood draws to make sure that the markers drop to normal levels, and you really need to go through with all the follow-ups. The reason I'm being adamant about it is because you had elements of choriocarcinoma (what was the exact proportion?). Chorio is the most aggressive of all germ cell tumors, so you really need to keep a watchful eye on this. I'm sure the other guys in the forum that have more experience with chorio in their pathology will pitch in here.

[millerj1981]

CT scan clear.

CT scan was clear...waiting for the ONC at Hopkins to fit me into his schedule. thanks for the help guys and gals.

[dadmo]

That's great news, congratulations.

[oscar666]

hi

Decreasing of markers is a very good sign. It takes some time to reach the normal limits. (I could not give you what is "normal" exactly but, say <1..3 for AFP and <1..4 for bHCG). The most important is to see them going down and staying down.
Usually, AFP needs about 5 days to drop down to half of its value.
bHCG needs about 1-2 days drop down to half of its value.
On next blood test, you will see.
Ask for detailed final CT analysis. They need to check and “scroll” many pictures and they are looking for “size remarkable retroperitoneal lymph nodes”. Normally they should NOT notice these nodes because they are very small and have similar “x-ray” properties to the surrounded tissue.
Regarding the pathology – again, I learned the following keywords:
- Is there vascular invasion?
- Lymph space invasion?
- What is the % of each type of non-seminoma elements?

Post the results here.

You are in good hands.
Everything will be fine!