› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Biopsy Pt 1 Today
- This topic has 24 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 9 months ago by
MattF.
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- August 15, 2013 at 3:07 am
so about 6 weeks ago I noticed a largish (jumbo olive) sized lump under right ear, sticks out through the skin, hard, fixed…about 1 inch from primary stage 1 (maybe 2 unclear with shave biopsy) melanoma WLE that I had last Sep 2012
I saw onc and derm and both wanted biopsy
ultrasound was today…radiologist found it immediately and if=dentified it as a mass on or in my salivary gland.
he took 3 different pulls with Fine Needle…..sending it away for results.
anyone have any insite as to melanoma spreading to salivary gland?
so about 6 weeks ago I noticed a largish (jumbo olive) sized lump under right ear, sticks out through the skin, hard, fixed…about 1 inch from primary stage 1 (maybe 2 unclear with shave biopsy) melanoma WLE that I had last Sep 2012
I saw onc and derm and both wanted biopsy
ultrasound was today…radiologist found it immediately and if=dentified it as a mass on or in my salivary gland.
he took 3 different pulls with Fine Needle…..sending it away for results.
anyone have any insite as to melanoma spreading to salivary gland?
kind of wild because it is litterally under my SNB scar from where they pulled 2 nodes and told me they were clear.
- Replies
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- August 15, 2013 at 3:30 am
I had stones in my salivary gland … maybe that's what this is?
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- August 15, 2013 at 3:30 am
I had stones in my salivary gland … maybe that's what this is?
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- August 15, 2013 at 3:30 am
I had stones in my salivary gland … maybe that's what this is?
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- August 15, 2013 at 3:40 am
i hope so but…he actually said it was a thick (very thick) liquid and he was trying to pull it out for examination and pathology.
i think it could be anything…except fot the fact i had head and neck melanoma and the lump was less than an inch from my primary.
really curious what that would be catigorized lol? stage 3? stage 4? local reoccurance?
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- August 15, 2013 at 3:59 am
It wouldn't be stage IV. Stage IV would mean it would have to be in the organs or travel to a "distant" lymph node basin. Local recurrence is iffy. Supposedly based on distance from the primary, but it doesn't seem to have any real universal guidelines. Maybe the sentinel node was really missed and the current area is the sentinel node. Typically I'd consider a local recurrence to be ON the skin and not under but I might be mistaking your lump somehow. Just ask but there might not be a real clear-cut answer.
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- August 15, 2013 at 4:03 am
no that all makes sense. i agree with not stage IV
and i always think of local as on skin with in the 2 inch or so I read about from primary.
I actually saw a study online where a doctor showed that 49% of head and neck oprimaries actually spread to parotid salivary gland before any other lymp node….so you may have something as the gland itself (which is a big filter like lympg node) is the sentinal.
I mean i have to wait for the pathology but the radiologist used the word mass on parotid salivary….very close to primary cancer site…i think he and all of us are hoping for the best but understand what we are dealing with
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- August 15, 2013 at 1:24 pm
Hello,
My husband had his first surgery on his head in the back and SNB was clear as well, he got his second lesion just below (not very far) and it was under the skin. His third lesion came on the sides of the scar and were under the skin. After each surgery was told we think we got it all. The fourth came on the neck area inches from the others but by the collar bone. He was Stage IIIC. The fifth was an unresectable one at the cervical spine and putting pressure on the spine and then had spread to the liver and lungs plus 3 sub Q's near the cervical spine one.
Hope this helps but if you want to read more check out his profile.
Judy (wife of Gene Stage IV and now NED)
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- August 15, 2013 at 1:24 pm
Hello,
My husband had his first surgery on his head in the back and SNB was clear as well, he got his second lesion just below (not very far) and it was under the skin. His third lesion came on the sides of the scar and were under the skin. After each surgery was told we think we got it all. The fourth came on the neck area inches from the others but by the collar bone. He was Stage IIIC. The fifth was an unresectable one at the cervical spine and putting pressure on the spine and then had spread to the liver and lungs plus 3 sub Q's near the cervical spine one.
Hope this helps but if you want to read more check out his profile.
Judy (wife of Gene Stage IV and now NED)
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- August 15, 2013 at 1:24 pm
Hello,
My husband had his first surgery on his head in the back and SNB was clear as well, he got his second lesion just below (not very far) and it was under the skin. His third lesion came on the sides of the scar and were under the skin. After each surgery was told we think we got it all. The fourth came on the neck area inches from the others but by the collar bone. He was Stage IIIC. The fifth was an unresectable one at the cervical spine and putting pressure on the spine and then had spread to the liver and lungs plus 3 sub Q's near the cervical spine one.
Hope this helps but if you want to read more check out his profile.
Judy (wife of Gene Stage IV and now NED)
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- August 15, 2013 at 10:33 pm
My daughter's primary was a mole on the right side of her neck. She had the wide excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy done and the lymph nodes were clear. 1 month later she felt an enlarged lymph node just above the area of the wide excision (the sentinel lymph nodes were taken from below the excision). She had a second surgery to remove 26 lymph nodes and part of the parotid gland. Only the 1 lymph node was found to have melanoma. I don't know if the nuclear med. and blue dye are that accurate for detecting sentinel lymph nodes in the neck area. Anyway, it was never decided, or told to us anyway even though we asked, if she had a recurrence or a metastasis or if this lymph node was actually the sentinel and just not detected. They staged her at 3b.
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- August 15, 2013 at 10:33 pm
My daughter's primary was a mole on the right side of her neck. She had the wide excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy done and the lymph nodes were clear. 1 month later she felt an enlarged lymph node just above the area of the wide excision (the sentinel lymph nodes were taken from below the excision). She had a second surgery to remove 26 lymph nodes and part of the parotid gland. Only the 1 lymph node was found to have melanoma. I don't know if the nuclear med. and blue dye are that accurate for detecting sentinel lymph nodes in the neck area. Anyway, it was never decided, or told to us anyway even though we asked, if she had a recurrence or a metastasis or if this lymph node was actually the sentinel and just not detected. They staged her at 3b.
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- August 15, 2013 at 10:33 pm
My daughter's primary was a mole on the right side of her neck. She had the wide excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy done and the lymph nodes were clear. 1 month later she felt an enlarged lymph node just above the area of the wide excision (the sentinel lymph nodes were taken from below the excision). She had a second surgery to remove 26 lymph nodes and part of the parotid gland. Only the 1 lymph node was found to have melanoma. I don't know if the nuclear med. and blue dye are that accurate for detecting sentinel lymph nodes in the neck area. Anyway, it was never decided, or told to us anyway even though we asked, if she had a recurrence or a metastasis or if this lymph node was actually the sentinel and just not detected. They staged her at 3b.
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- August 16, 2013 at 4:22 am
Kathy thanks for the reply.
I have thought and heard the same thing…lots of places to go with the dye in the neck. They actually took 3 lymph nodes out of me from 2 different sites back in sep with my WLE and called all 3 Sentinal lymph Nodes….
so i understand now that they simply may have been there best option (best guess).
Radiologist was pretty clear that this is not a lymph node but a mass…when he showed it to us it was not a normal round or ball or bean shaped…the part you can feel is like a ball or olive but the entire thing on imaging looks like a really fat version of Louisiana with round edges lol. Believed to be in the parotid (which really is just another form of large lymph node I guess).
I read a study yesterday where a doctor noted that a good percent ( like 49%) of head and neck melanomas will spread to the parotid.
Thanks for the input.
Matt
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- August 15, 2013 at 3:40 am
i hope so but…he actually said it was a thick (very thick) liquid and he was trying to pull it out for examination and pathology.
i think it could be anything…except fot the fact i had head and neck melanoma and the lump was less than an inch from my primary.
really curious what that would be catigorized lol? stage 3? stage 4? local reoccurance?
-
- August 15, 2013 at 3:40 am
i hope so but…he actually said it was a thick (very thick) liquid and he was trying to pull it out for examination and pathology.
i think it could be anything…except fot the fact i had head and neck melanoma and the lump was less than an inch from my primary.
really curious what that would be catigorized lol? stage 3? stage 4? local reoccurance?
-
- August 15, 2013 at 3:59 am
It wouldn't be stage IV. Stage IV would mean it would have to be in the organs or travel to a "distant" lymph node basin. Local recurrence is iffy. Supposedly based on distance from the primary, but it doesn't seem to have any real universal guidelines. Maybe the sentinel node was really missed and the current area is the sentinel node. Typically I'd consider a local recurrence to be ON the skin and not under but I might be mistaking your lump somehow. Just ask but there might not be a real clear-cut answer.
-
- August 15, 2013 at 3:59 am
It wouldn't be stage IV. Stage IV would mean it would have to be in the organs or travel to a "distant" lymph node basin. Local recurrence is iffy. Supposedly based on distance from the primary, but it doesn't seem to have any real universal guidelines. Maybe the sentinel node was really missed and the current area is the sentinel node. Typically I'd consider a local recurrence to be ON the skin and not under but I might be mistaking your lump somehow. Just ask but there might not be a real clear-cut answer.
-
- August 15, 2013 at 4:03 am
no that all makes sense. i agree with not stage IV
and i always think of local as on skin with in the 2 inch or so I read about from primary.
I actually saw a study online where a doctor showed that 49% of head and neck oprimaries actually spread to parotid salivary gland before any other lymp node….so you may have something as the gland itself (which is a big filter like lympg node) is the sentinal.
I mean i have to wait for the pathology but the radiologist used the word mass on parotid salivary….very close to primary cancer site…i think he and all of us are hoping for the best but understand what we are dealing with
-
- August 15, 2013 at 4:03 am
no that all makes sense. i agree with not stage IV
and i always think of local as on skin with in the 2 inch or so I read about from primary.
I actually saw a study online where a doctor showed that 49% of head and neck oprimaries actually spread to parotid salivary gland before any other lymp node….so you may have something as the gland itself (which is a big filter like lympg node) is the sentinal.
I mean i have to wait for the pathology but the radiologist used the word mass on parotid salivary….very close to primary cancer site…i think he and all of us are hoping for the best but understand what we are dealing with
-
- August 16, 2013 at 4:22 am
Kathy thanks for the reply.
I have thought and heard the same thing…lots of places to go with the dye in the neck. They actually took 3 lymph nodes out of me from 2 different sites back in sep with my WLE and called all 3 Sentinal lymph Nodes….
so i understand now that they simply may have been there best option (best guess).
Radiologist was pretty clear that this is not a lymph node but a mass…when he showed it to us it was not a normal round or ball or bean shaped…the part you can feel is like a ball or olive but the entire thing on imaging looks like a really fat version of Louisiana with round edges lol. Believed to be in the parotid (which really is just another form of large lymph node I guess).
I read a study yesterday where a doctor noted that a good percent ( like 49%) of head and neck melanomas will spread to the parotid.
Thanks for the input.
Matt
-
- August 16, 2013 at 4:22 am
Kathy thanks for the reply.
I have thought and heard the same thing…lots of places to go with the dye in the neck. They actually took 3 lymph nodes out of me from 2 different sites back in sep with my WLE and called all 3 Sentinal lymph Nodes….
so i understand now that they simply may have been there best option (best guess).
Radiologist was pretty clear that this is not a lymph node but a mass…when he showed it to us it was not a normal round or ball or bean shaped…the part you can feel is like a ball or olive but the entire thing on imaging looks like a really fat version of Louisiana with round edges lol. Believed to be in the parotid (which really is just another form of large lymph node I guess).
I read a study yesterday where a doctor noted that a good percent ( like 49%) of head and neck melanomas will spread to the parotid.
Thanks for the input.
Matt
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