How many biopsies are acceptable before surgery?

mianola

I had a biopsy on January 16 and was diagnosed with DCIS. After an MRI, a large palpable "mass" was spotted. My surgeon did a ultrasound guided biopsy and a lymph node needle biopsy last Thursday. He was absolutely sure it was invasive cancer and was preparing me to have a port inserted. My results came back as DCIS again. My lymph nodes did not show cancer, but a very small atypical cell. Totally different area for the biopsy with 5-6 samples. He now wants to do a third biopsy because he said he doesn't believe my results. I'm going to have a bi-lateral mastectomy in early March regardless because the DCIS area is large and I don't want to deal with this with the other breast down the road. I'm also having a lymph node removal before that to make sure everything is clear. How many biopsies should one have before surgery? Has anyone else gone through this? Does anyone out there have DCIS with a mass they can feel? I swear the mass has gotten larger since the first biopsy.

Magari

Hi, Mianola - My initial diagnosis was right-sided DCIS following a stereotactic core biopsy. That report was then revised to indicate that the DCIS was high grade and that there was microinvasion. I then had both an ultrasound and a bilateral MRI which showed "several subthreshold sized foci scattered throughout the left breast," and 2 additional masses in addition to the one that had been biopsied on the right. Mass locations on the right were at 1:00, 3:00 and 6:00 positions. I could not feel any of the masses.

I was advised that I would need to have biopsies of the additional masses if I opted for lumpectomy. Because of strong family history and various other factors, I chose to have bilateral mastectomy with direct to implant reconstruction. Since my breast tissue was going to be removed during surgery, my surgeon said there was no need to have the additional biopsies.

My post-surgical report found that I had both IDC and DCIS on the right, DCIS on the left, and micrometastatic carcinoma in one of my lymph nodes. (My surgeon told me that sentinel node biopsy is standard for all patients undergoing BMX.) So in my particular case, the decision to have the bilateral mastectomy turned out to be the right one and I am very relieved to have made that choice.