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Anyone have cancer with unknown primary?
Cancer | Last Active: Oct 23 9:04pm | Replies (216)Comment receiving replies
@amdabrock1
I’m trying to understand the story. It seems if they’ve done a biopsy they would know the type of cancer. If they didn’t biopsy, how did they determine it’s cancer and not something benign? Or did they do a biopsy and it’s inconclusive as to type?What did scans show? Which areas are they planning to radiate? Maybe for radiation they don’t need to know what type of cancer??? Are there more case details you can share? It feels like we’re coming in at the end of the story.
I remember when they thought my brother had bone cancer because the issues were in his pelvis and spine, but after spinal tumors were removed and biopsied, they learned it was metastatic lung cancer. They then found two tumors in his lungs but he never had any respiratory symptoms. That’s when they started chemo and radiation. He was 45 and never smoked so we were all shocked. Point being it’s hard to know where the primary is without a biopsy.
Replies to "@amdabrock1 I’m trying to understand the story. It seems if they’ve done a biopsy they would..."
While that is true most often, my tumor biopsy came back as “unspecified”. It was evaluated by 3 different labs/pathologists. Until the next ca reoccurred, when the tumor was the same makeup, but the cells made more sense in that area, they couldn’t determine the primary. They took a systemic treatment approach; treating the organ & affected area.
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The biopsy just says " positive for keratin and CAM 5.2, negative for LCA, SOX10, TTF-1, p40, CD68, S100 and HMB45. The carcinoma is described as poorly differentiated. The pet scan revealed 8 places around my body where cancer is present. Oncology says they have to do genetic testing to find out what it is and where it started if possible.