How long can I wait to have surgery?

olivia218

I had a biopsy early in November followed by MRI and another biopsy right before Thanksgiving. The pathology report says mulitple layers of high grade ductal type tumor cells with central comedo necrosis. The abnormal cellular proliferatoin expands to involve adjacent lobules. Single microscopic cluster of cells suspicious for invasion, with a lack of myoepithelial cell layer.

DX - DCIS comedo type, Grade 3 (high grade nuclei and necrosis)

My surgery is not until Feb 5th and I am worried, it seems like a long time to wait for surgery.

jane1254

olivia218

My BS told me in November there was no rush for surgery to relax and enjoy the holidays and call her after the first of the year to make plans as to what I wanted to do.  She also gave me the names of the Rad, if I was going to go the Lumpectomy route and the PS if I was going the Mast. route.  She said there was absolutely no emergency with DCIS.  I was unable to accept this due to my personality, not the diagnosis.  I had my surgery 12/7.  The pathology showed that the BS was absolutely correct, there was no emergency and I could have waited much longer.  I hope this helps.

Jane 

zoegr

Hi Olivia,

i have found a lump in my breast first days of October. After series of exams, mammogram, MRI, ultrasound and Needle Biopsy, i had the diagnosis of BC around Mid of November. Now it's 31st of January and i haven't had the surgery yet. I have asked many times my Surgeon as well as two other doctors (my cousin and another surgeon who is friend of mine) if this delay is dangerous, but all of them are sure that the cancer will not spread suddenly and they don't even know if it's DCIS or some invasive type. So you don't have to worry.

Keep me posted. Happy and Healty New Year!

Zoe

Kitchenwitch

I had a routine mammogram a week before Thanksgiving, a biopsy the week of Thanksgiving and a diagnosis of DCIS (kind of between grades 2 & 3) the week after Thanksgiving. I will likely have my lumpectomy sometime in late February because I am going to Mexico (AND NO ONE IS GOING TO STOP ME) for a week on Feb. 6. Spoke to one surgeon today who didn't seem to think that would be a problem. 

nolookingback

It was 11 weeks from biopsy and diagnosis to mastectomy and reconstruction for me. It seemed like FOREVER but in reality was probably pretty standand. My original surgeon told me DCIS is slow growing and I had time to make the right decisions for me. However, he said he really wouldn't want to see me go past 4 months, just to be safe. You seem to be on a reasonable time table. Best of luck.

idaho

The DCIS has probably been growing for years.. A  couple of months is not going to make much difference.  Peace and health to you.   Tami

Bless

I was diagnosed in August with DCIS.  I researched DCIS for 3 months had 2 more biopsies which came back normal and scheduled my surgery (lumpectomy) at a breast center far from home in November for my right breast.  Had my slides sent there only to have my diagnosis changed to LCIS in both breasts.  Had the surgery anyway and they found a tiny bit of invasive in the left breast.  Apparently the pathology is changed when analyzed by a second lab in about 25% of the cases. 

So I waited while I educated myself (on the wrong type of BC) but also on who I wanted to do my surgery.  That turned out to be the best time I've ever spent on almost anything.

Anonymous

my doctor said anything that was there had probably been growing 6 to 10 years, so another few weeks wouldn't make any difference. (we already had a family vacation to europe planned and paid for; we went and had an awesome time; I had my biopsy three days after getting home.)  It seems like it takes most  several weeks for the whole process.

Anne

keno41

I waited 2 months for my  bilateral because I switched doctors and then ran into summer vacation time. I was a wreck and convinced that it was spreading the whole time that I was waiting. It was the worst summer of my life! It ended up being fine and nothing had spread, It was just very hard worrying everyday! I think that was the worst part of the whole ordeal. You should be fine. I wish you luck.

olivia218

Thanks, my worry is the microinvasion on the pathology report.

Have you thought about not having the surgery at all?

Bless

The word micro is good.  Think small.  Invasion is never a happy word...but it is micro "small"

I personally never considered not having some kind of surgery.  I had 2 lumpectomies and one re-excision to get clear margins (so 3 all together - 2 on the left and 1 on the right).  I had considered mastectomy, but decided that wasn't right for me at this time.  And I am very happy with that decision for me.  I don't know where you live.  I'm in FL, but chose to fly to CA for Dr Silverstein.  He is MR DCIS in my book.  My original diagnosis was DCIS.  He used oncoplastic surgery techniques on me and you can't even tell that I had anything done except for 2 straight line incision marks (one on each breast).  I had no bruising, hardly any pain and a great post op appearance.  He was even able to do a sentinel node biopsy on me through the breast incision so I didn't have to get cut under my arm.  (He doesn't always do sentinel node biopsy unless he feels it is warranted)

With DCIS there is something called the VNPI (which Dr Silverstein and Dr Laigos were instrumental in creating) that you can use to help make your treatment decisions.  Try googling it and let me know if you need help.  It might make you feel more comfortable.

olivia218

Bless,

I looked up the VNPI score and my score is 11.  You are right "micro" is good. Do I need to schedule an appt with an oncologist?

Bless

Oncologist surgeon, I would say yes.  There are also medical oncologist who handle chemo therapy and hormone therapy type of stuff and then there is radiation oncologist who just does the radiation therapy. 

Personally I saw all 3 before I did anything.  I spent 3 months doing research before I decided who I wanted to do my surgery and what my thoughts were for my particular care.

Bless

Sorry that I repeated myself.  My husband was calling me to dinner and I was trying to reply quickly just in case I got tied up. 

If you have the ability to get to a breast cancer center, I would highly recommend it.  I know that in my case, many people told me that "it wasn't a big deal" that I could have a general surgeon handle it.  In my opinion, general surgeons don't have enough experience with breasts to give you the best possible outcome.  I'm really extremely happy with the results I got from Dr Silverstein, who practices what he calls oncoplastic surgery.  What that means is that he is an oncologist surgeon who uses plastic surgery techniques when doing breast cancer surgery.  He also teaches this technique at USC's Keck school of medicine. 

I hope that helps. 

Jules824

Olivia nice to meet you, I am sorry for your diagnosis. I was diagnosed with the same as you (comedo etc) in August and didnt have surgery till Oct 29th. Im still in radiation. Everything was slow. They claimed there was no rush, but I wanted to rush too, so I cant blame you. Ive been going thru this whole thing now for 6 months now and now they want to add on more radiation. (To me its ridiculous, but what can ya do? We have to listen to the docs so we can beat this). Well, I  hope and pray everything goes well for your surgery and all. Best of luck for a much healthier New Year.

Jules

olivia218

Jules

Thanks for your timeline. Did you have any lymphnodes removed?  The surgeon told me that he was going to do a sentinel node biopsy during surgery.  I have pain under my arm but have not mentioned it yet to the surgeon.