1B uterine cancer

I've read the terms "1A" refering to cancer. My Dr. says I'm a 1B. I know what the stages - I, II, II and IV are. What's up with the A and B stuff?
Monica

Hi Monica, I am so glad that you posted here on *cancer concerns * we all have an idea of how you are feeling right now It is a frightening thing to be told . xxx

I get so confused with all the gradings and stagings of different cancers , so I will leave that up to one of the others to explain to you

at the top of the cancer concerns forum , there is a thread called our diagnosis, there is a list of women and the type of cancer they had. Please feel free to contact anyone of them , they are always willing to listen and support as well.

We are always here for you, as you go through whatever may come your way and between us we have been through it all
love always x x x

Hi Monica, I was recently diagnosed with stag1b cervical cancer. I'm not sure if the staging for uterine cancer is identical, but for cervical the 'a' means that it's penetrated the surrounding tissue by less than 50mm, and 'b' would be more than 50mm. In my case it was 85 mm, or roughly a 1/3 of an inch.

Go to cancer.org and look up info on uterine cancer. You should be able to find specific info on staging that type of cancer there.

I know it's scary, it's only been 3 weeks since I was dx. I'm 12 days postop and the path report showed that I had clear margins and there should be no need for radiation or chemo. You've come to the right place for both support and answers.

Let us know how you're doing...

Hi and Welcome......
Stage 1B simply means that it only began to invade the uterine wall. A hysterectomy should be the cure. What is important is also to find out what grade your endometrial cancer was.
Please feel free to email if you have any other questions. You definitely came to the right place.
Are you sure you had uterine cancer and not cervical, because when I read your pofile you said it was discovered after a pap smear. Pap smears do not usually detect uterine cancer.

Yes, it's uterine cancer. The Dr. read the report of the pap and said it had picked up some strange cells from the uterus. He said it looked like a rare form of uterine cancer that only women over 50 usually get so we shouldn't worry. When he did the D&C, he also did a cone biopsy and some kind of scope. He said everything looked good and didn't look like signs of cancer - Until the results came back. He said this form of cancer is very rare, even in post-menopasal women.
Leave it to me to be one of the lucky few.
Thanks for the information and support.
Monica

Monica, did the doctor put a name to your cancer?
Mine was also cancer of the uterus and very, very rare. It was called leiomyosarcoma. Mine was in fibroids attached to the uterus and cervix. No one every told me what stage mine was and I guess I was too scared to ask at the time.

He said uterine sarcoma. My friend's husband is a doctor and he told me it was leiomyosarcoma. I was in shock at the time and all I really understood was "it's in the muscle of your uterus; the walls." I haven't seen my doctor in two weeks and don't have another appointment set up before the surgery. It seems like other people on this site are more in touch with their doctors than I am mine. Of course, both of my doctor's have told me to call with any questions I have. I just haven't.
My doctor did tell me it was just a fluke the pap caught it. How did they catch yours?
Monica

I began spotting. Since I have been in menapause over 8 or 9 yrs., they sent me for an ultrasound. I had a pap smear and it was negative. They thought there was a cyst on my ovary so the doctor was just going to go in an remove my ovary but when he got in there, there were three fibroids on my uterus (one next to the cervix). He removed the fibroids with the uterus and ovaries. He left the cervix because he said he was sure they were just fibroids and the cervix would help hold my bladder up later in life. But when the pathology report came back it was leiomysarcoma in the fibroid attached between the uterus and cervix. He didn't clearly get all of the cancer so I had to take 33 radiation treatments. I go back every 3 mos. for a CT scan of the pelvic and abdominal area. If the doctor had not been so sure of himself and taken the cervix also, they would have gotten all of it. He also did the cancer blood test before the surgery and it came back negative and he said he could guarantee me there was nothing wrong with my uterus. Needless to say, I'm not going to him anymore. I had the hysterectomy Nov. 26th, 2001, started radiation treatments in Jan. Go back for my CT scan July 20th.

That sounds terrible. I trust my doctor so far because I don't have any reason not to. He refered me to a gyn oncologist, but he'll be there for the surgery. It took a little longer to schedule the surgery because of having both doctors. Do two doctors normally do the procedure? I don't know. I'm 31 so none of my friends have goon through this for me to talk to about it.
Did you have internal or external radiation? The thought of having a metal radioactive rod in my vagina scares my half to death!!!
And I didn't know there was such a thing as a cancer blood test. Not that it matters much if it doesn't work!
How do you feel now?

Monica, the doctor who did my surgery was a reg. gyn. I asked him if I should go to a cancer specialist for the surgery and he said I could if I wanted to but he could guarantee me that I didn't have cancer. So I opted to let him do it to be closer to home.
He didn't even tell me for almost 4 wks. that the pathology report came back cancer. I asked him why so long but he said they were double checking it. After he gave me the report, he sent me to a cancer specialist in Nashville.
I had all internal radiation. They gave me 27 treatments over the whole obdominal area and then they pin pointed 6 of the treatments to the one spot on my cervix at where the cancer was cut off.
I feel good most days now. I'm still not up to doing the way I was before the surgery.
I'm 59 yrs. and they told me also that this kind of cancer mostly affects women who have gone through menapause.
The cancer doctor in Nashville told me that the only common thread to this cancer was that if someone had been exposed to radiation around 25 yrs. before, which I wasn't as far as I know.