Mom is newly diagnosed

cdau

Hi All,

My mom is 65 years old and is newly diagnosed with DCIS. She lives in China. She had a lumpectomy and the pathology report just came out. Could someone please help me to understand the report? I tried to seach the archive but I couldn't find anything.

DCIS, Grade 1C, DIN1C, mass 5mm and margin is 1mm

ER+++, PR +/-, Cerb-2 -/+, E-Cadherin +, MIB-1 1%+, D2-40 -, P63 +, Calponin +, SMMHC +

Both the surgeon and pathologist recommend no radiation but hormone therapy. I thought 1mm margin is too little to skip radiation. Of course, my mom is happy that she is done with the treatment but I don't want any risk for her. We don't have a family history of breast cancer.

Any feedbacks will be greatly appreciated.

Amy

SJW1

Amy,

From what you posted it looks like your mom's DCIS was low grade and small in size. I can see that she also is ER positive and somewhat PR positive. I am not familiar with all the other things listed.



Usually with a 1 mm margin, re-excision is recommended, since margin width is one of the best predictors of recurrence. She probably would want to talk to her doctor about that.



Even with the small margin, however, her score on the Van Nuys Prognostic Index would be quite good. The VNPI is based on her age, the size of her margins, and the size and grade of her DCIS. This is used to to predict her chances of recurrences without radiation. If her risk is quite low, at only 5 percent for instance, then the 50 percent reduction in risk that radiation brings might not be worth it to her.



Since DCIS is non-invasive cancer, your mom has many options that are good, safe, reasonable choices for her treatment. However, whatever she chooses has to be something with which she is comfortable.



Hope this helps.

Hugs,

Sandie