I am new ... have pathology question

[Newbie]

Hi everyone,

I am new. I was just diagnosed with colon cancer and am just learning to navigate my way through the sea of information that's drowning me.

I have a question and was hoping you can help me better understand something on my patholody report.

Under Microscopic tumor extension, the report states:

Tumor invades through muscular propria into pericolonic soft tissue but does not extend to the surface ...

What does the above mean exactly? does it mean that it reached the peritoneum? Patholody states pT3 ... I am so confused. Can someone make some sense of this for me? Any clarification would be most appreciated.

Thank you.

[weisssoccermom]

Newbie,
First of all, welcome to the club, that, as we say, no one wants to join!

The colon wall is made up of 'layers' and the pathology report will tell the doctors how many of these 'layers' (i.e. how deeply) the tumor has invaded.
There are designations for tumor depth - that is what the "T" designation means. Different designations are: T1, T2, T3 and T4 and you must NOT confuse tumor staging with overall staging.
Your overall staging is made up of three different parts - "T", "N" and "M"
1. The "T" staging is how deeply the tumor has invaded the colon/rectum wall
2. The "N" designation indicates how many, if any, of the nodes retrieved during surgery were cancerous
3. The "M" designation indicates if any mets are seen (on the diagnostic CT, PET or MRI)

Here's a link that will hopefully help you better understand the above (complete with diagrams which might help visualize this all better!)

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/ColonandRe ... cer-staged
To answer a quick question - NO your tumor at a stage T3 has not reached the peritoneum.

BTW - you might want to register. That way we can send you a PM, etc.

Again, welcome.

Jaynee

[SkiFletch]

Welcome to the board, so sorry you have to be here, but hope we can help you out. This stuff is all so new, different and scary at first isn't it? This link below should help you understand pathology and what that stuff all means.

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/ColonandRectumCancer/DetailedGuide/colorectal-cancer-staged

The rest of your TNM staging will help determine things like treatment, prognosis, etc. Hope this helps.

Edit: lol, jaynee just beat me to it

[Toby57]

Newbie:

Both of the above post gave great sites to help explain the staging, here is another site in color explains the staging too, Goodluck .

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/ ... ient/page2