Anyone with LCIS that is HER 2 Positive

myajames

I can't seem to find any information about the significance of HER 2 positivity is LCIS. Does it matter?

My case is ER+ PR+ and HER2+

MelissaDallas

Mya, is your LCISpleomorphic? Pleomorphic LCIS is comsidered to be higher risk than "classic" LCIS and is also more likely to be HER+

myajames

I have no idea.. My RN called to give me the prelim path results because she knew the waiting was driving me bananas.

She told me to write down ER+ PR+ and said to write down HER 2 Positive and Herceptin. Tomorrow isn't that far away, and I know I will get more answers... but I always feel more comfortable when I can speak the same language as the doctor.

MelissaDallas

I know, I agree. I hate when they won't tell me anything before appointments. How am I supposed to know what intelligent questions to ask? I was diagnosed at an NCI cancer center about four years ago. My path report doesn't even have receptor info.

leaf

Well, I sure don't think there is any Established significance.

One sentence in this abstract says ER/PR and HER2 status have a high rate of concordance between in situ and subsequent invasive lesions. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21935747

This is a tiny study of 27 classic LCIS patients who went on to get invasive breast cancer. I can't read the original study because its behind a firewall, but I am guessing this means that a HER2+ classic LCIS was correlated with subsequent invasion????? It takes LOTS and LOTS of studies in order for something to be an established fact. Correlation is NOT the same thing as causation - which means that classic LCIS HER2+ does NOT NECESSARILY CAUSE invasive breast cancer. This is a TINY study. It is just a suggestion.

But, if you go to a local hospital, at some point you may want to get a 2nd opinion from an NCI-certified breast center, or at least several different opinions, on how to proceed with your treatment choices. I've never heard of LCIS or PLCIS women getting Herceptin, but what do I know? (Herceptin is often used for HER2+ invasive breast cancer.)

It sounds like DCIS that is HER2+ is not treated differently than DCIS HER2- (at least as of 2011 or 2013.) https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/111/topic... (in other words, it sounds like oncologists normally do not give Herceptin without giving chemotherapy, and since by definition, LCIS, DCIS and PLCIS are NOT invasive, they wouldn't be giving chemotherapy.) (Beesie is one of the most established knowledgeable people about DCIS on this site.) If there's some invasion (which means penetration of the abnormal 'cancer-like' cells from the lumen of the ducts or lobes through the basement membrane to the stroma of the breast), then that's probably a whole different ball of wax.)

I was diagnosed in 2005 at my local hospital (from my core biopsy sample), and my path report lists ER and PR testing, but no HER2+ testing.

myajames

Back from the doc and this is what I know:

Pleomorphic LCIS. HER 2 positivity doesn't change the treatment plan, so she is not sure why they ordered that particular test. I get my MRI results on Monday. She said that if the pathology on the lumpectomy comes back with malignancy, than they'd usually want to remove a lymph node... however she doesnt want to have to schedule multiple surgeries... SOOO if the MRI looks funky... she'll remove one during the lumpectomy.

Curious if anyone has had this done ahead of a malignant diagnosis?

MelissaDallas

I had a lymph node that looked mildly suspicious that they did ultrasound guided needle biopsy on at the same time my stereotactic breast biopsy was done.The radiologist told me before the biopsy that she would really be surprised if amounted to anything and it was, in fact, benign. My MRI didn't show anything besides what we already knew about so nothing but the excisional biopsy when I had surgery.