Diagnosed with DICS and later it turns out that it was IDC?

Kiseroo

Hello Everyone, I wanted to know if any of you had experienced a long wait to get surgery or lumpectomy after diagnosis of DICS? I was diagnosed in Nov 28, 2017 with DICS 2.5 cm high grade commedo. Then, I just had my lumpectomy April 25, 2018, and it turns out that the 2.5 cm was a 1.1cm of IDC. I went through a second surgery for sentinel lymph node harvest, which they took out four and they were clean. Now, my onc explained that I have to have chemo and rads, which I understand because of the possibility of some cancer cells being out in the loose. She also explained to me that my tumor could have been multi focal (one side DCIS and the other IDC) and that the sample they took out for my biopsy was part of the DCIS. My biopsy was done on Nov 15,2017 and also had two MRIs in between the surgery to make sure that there was nothing else suspicious. I wonder if they would have operated on me sooner that it would have only been DCIS. These have been the longest months of my life. I am 44 just graduated college and I have been putting off getting a job because scince my initial mamo that was in Sept 15, 2017 had inconclusive results. Then, I got the pathology report of my lumpectomy with a diagnosis I was not expecting. Has anyone gone through this, and should I get a second opinion? Would it even matter since invasive cancer was found?

GreenEyes81

Hi, that sounds very stressful and what a surprise! That was a very long wait. All I can share on that is at the time of my first dx, my surgen told me if it hadn't been found for another 6 months my treatment plan would not have been different. But all of our cancers are different.

I would recommend everyone to get a 2nd opinion, even a third if its a difficult situation. There is one issue I do have with what your doctor told you and that is regarding it being "multi focal". Multi focal is NOT one tumor that is 1/2 and 1/2. That is very much a red flag to me. I had multi focal, 3 tumors the first time. Google the meaning of multi focal. You will find it as the "presence of two or more foci of cancer within the same breast quadrant is defined as multifocal, while the presence of two or more foci of cancer in different quadrants of the same breast is defined as multicentric." NOW...if you had two tumors that were close to each other, even touching...that would be different.

As for chemo...what is your pathology? ER/PR? Hers? Chemo is decided looking at the whole puzzle....the puzzle has many pieces. I hope this helps.

Sweet_Pea

Hi, I, too, wouldn't hesitate to get a second opinion, and maybe a third. I had three opinions when I was first diagnosed with ADH, a 6+ cm área of it. The first opinion was that it was ADH and so large that I needed a mastectomy (I nearly fell off my chair when I first heard that), the second that it was ADH and that I needed a lumpectomy, and the third asked for an additional MRI-guided, vacuum-assisted biopsy which turned out the result that there was one focal point of DCIS, at least (also said I'd need a mastectomy).

I stayed with the third opinion and had my mastectomy three months after the initial diagnosis of ADH. They found one focal point of IDC and the one of DCIS that they had seen during the biopsy. So, I guess what I'm saying is, even three months or the month after my DCIS diagnosis there was room to actually find some IDC.

Waiting is so, so hard. I'd really encourage you to get a second opinion.