DCIS, new breast cancer, shrinking tumor??

Roberta2

I am completely baffled.  I had Stage 0 DCIS, I believe high grade, 6 years ago.  Went thru three lumpectomy surgery to obtain clear margins.  NO clear margins, therefore needed a masectomy.  I choose to do both.  NO chemo, rads, or tamoxfen.  Now, six years later, I found a lump.  Doc did needle biopsy and sure enough the fluid (no tissue specimen) showed cancer.  Doc said that "he is 90% PLUS sure this is cancer and further explained that he was telling me was, yes i do have cancer and there would be an extreme, extreme longshot that it is not."  Had MRI today, having lump surgery a week from Friday.  He said it could be a recurrence from the original cancer and an entire new cancer.  HOW in the world does this happen?  I mean I know how it happend, a missed cell, etc.  What I mean is how in the world did I go from early, early cancer, to having a masectomy and no need for further treatment to know I have cancer again.  Does this never END??  And YES for skeptic's DCIS is CANCER.  I prefer not to get into that debate.  Sorry, if I am coming over as angry but I am.  First cancer, I had already in my head expected it after years of benine tumors in the left breast (cancer was in the right)  but this time it has came as a total shock because i thought i was pretty much out of woods.

UPDATE:  Doctor has cancelled Friday's surgery.  MRI shows the tumor is attached to the skin and pectoral muscle.  We are now doing a core biopsy on Wednesday to see stage, type, etc. Also, wants to do core biopsy on the lymph nodes because they should contain fatty substances to be bening/normal but one of them does not show that so it is inconclusive if cancer or not. I will be going to the oncologiest on Monday to see if the tissue test positive if they can give me medication to shrink it first, then do surgery later.

Does anyone know what medication this would be?  A chemo drug such as?? What is the average time I would be on this medication before possibly doing the surgery?

Also, he checked all my previous pathologies from the original masectomies and spoke with some others about my case, and said they had extreme clear margins.  Therefore, they believe this to be a new cancer.

The doc said the recurrence rate for DCIS was low, but I believe he said for it to be a new cancer, was even lower.

Roberta2

Bumping

mikita5

Hi Roberta:

I also had DCIS with bilat mx (one yr ago) and no further treatment. Oncologist says there's no need. After reading several postings on here last night, I have begun worrying again..

I'm so sorry you have to go thru this again.... Mega hugs your way.

strawberryleaves

    Hi, Roberta. Sorry to hear about your potential new cancer.

    Neoadjuvant therapy (what your onc is suggesting to shrink the tumor) can vary quite a bit, depending on the tumor (and onc, come to think of it). NCI has a decent fact sheet, if you want some background:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/adjuvant-breast

    Check with your onc about new diagnostic tests for chemo drugs, if you end up needing chemo. There are tests out there (like Oncotype DX or DirectHit) that can determine how effective a specific drug is likely to be for you. Considering how bad the side effects of chemo can be, why suffer for no reason?