LCIS As Contralateral Risk After BC Diagnosis on One Side?

Girl53

LCIS As Contralateral Risk After BC Diagnosis on One Side?

Girl53

All: Have a question whose answer could make a difference to treatment decision. Maybe I haven't been posing it the right way.

LCIS confers risk of future invasive cancer on both sides of body, not just the side on which LCIS was found, correct?

Does this "both sides," higher-than average risk remain at play on the contralateral side for an LCIS woman who develops cancer on one side and is treated for it? Isn't this woman's other breast still at higher risk for a future invasive cancer than is the contralateral breast of BC patient never diagnosed with LCIS?

Isn't this point part of the reason for a PBM when any woman with LCIS develops an invasive cancer on one side...that treating just that side won't address the whole risk conferred by her LCIS?

JohnSmith

LCIS can be a precursor to ILC.
LCIS is not invasive, yet ILC is.

Since you've moved beyond LCIS, you might want to frame this question in the ILC section, as it's much more relevant.

If you're interested in learning more, I'd highly recommend this website: "Lobular Breast Cancer".
It's technical, but contains the latest Lobular research.

As a very unscientific observation, if you spend enough time reading comments in the ILC section, you see a number of women who had a double mastectomy only to find pre-cancerous lesions (LCIS, Atypical Lobular Hyperplasia [ALH], etc...) in their prophetically removed "good" breast. This was certainly the case for my wife.

Not sure if this answers your questions though.

Anonymous

girl53----yes, LCIS puts both breasts at higher risk of invasive bc in the future, not just the breast where the LCIS was found. If a woman with LCIS develops an invasive bc in one breast and is treated for it with lumpectomy and radiation only, it won't change the risk for the other breast (as lumpectomy and radiation are just local treatments); but the risk would be lowered if she had chemo or took tamoxifen (as they are both systemic treatments). (tamox lowers risk up to about 45-50%; I don't know how much chemo would lower it, but if you have negative nodes, chemo would not be indicated anyway). So having a lumpectomy for ILC when you already have diagnosed LCIS, is still an option, but the inherent risk from LCIS on the other breast is still there; radiation for the ILC would only treat the breast with the ILC, while tamoxifen (or chemo, if indicated) would lower the risk in both breasts. My mom had ILC many years ago (stage 2, negative nodes), had lumpectomy, radiation and tamox for 5 years, and is a survivor of nearly 29 years without a recurrence. I hope this makes sense, I know it gets complicated.

anne

Edommey1

in all the research that I did to assist me in making the best informed decision, you are correct the fact that you have LCIS in one breast means that it is likely to be in other LCIS is not inclusive to the breast it was found in.

I just posted to a earlier post of yours. I was DX with LCIS in 1/2014 I decided on BMX and am so relieved to have it behind me I got so tired of gathering information, when this voice in my head just kept saying YOU GET THE CHOICE take control before cancer controls me!! My final pathology after my mastectomy showed LCIS IN BOTH BREASTS, not just my DX 'd breast ! They are gone and I am DONE WORR

Crescent5

Yes to all of your questions.

Never in a million years, would I have thought I would have had a preventative double mastectomy. It has been 3 and a half years since that operation (wow!!), and it is nothing but a relief to have that behind me. When I read these boards, I vividly remember the anguish. The fear. The tears. The smell of the hospital rooms. The feel of the needles. I am exceptionally glad not to have my boobies hanging out of a MRI table while I await another scan or to go through those biopsies again. I do feel that breast cancer is in the past, and there's nothing better than that.

Sometimes I do miss my natural breasts. I envy the young, carefree women who don't know this loss. And it is a loss. Make no mistake. In my opinion, it is simply the lesser of two horrible choices.

BTW, my reconstruction looks pretty good. Was able to keep the nips.