Just diagnosed

Flo80

Hello there,

I was diagnosed with breast cancer which is Invasive ductal carcinoma and DCIS. My ultrasound and mammogram showed size 0.9 to 2.8 but MRI showed a size of 5.2cm. Just confused that MRI overestimate the size as it can include the tumour and DCIS. The breast showed some skin thickening as well. I just asked the doctors to do my CT scan of the chest which came clear. I am scheduled for my first appointment with the surgeon on July 5th. I insisted on skin punch biopsy as well and waiting for it’s reaults.The wait Ian frustrating and also did not mention that my biosphere showed estrogen and progesterone positive and the third one not sure yet. The cells are moderately differentiated. Just wondering what stage I shall be as I don’t know about the lymph nodes yet as they were prominent in the mr

Moderators

Welcome, Flo! Glad you found us, though we hate that you have to be here for this reason.

We know the waiting is horrible, and it can be all really confusing right now, just know that you are not alone! Many of our members say once you have all the information and a treatment plan in place you start to feel like you're regaining control, so it will get easier!

Besides the wonderful support you'll get from other members here, we recommend you to visit the section Breast Cancer 101 of our main Breastcancer.org site. It's been designed for those newly diagnosed and will help you learn more about what to expect now and what to ask your doctors. We hope this helps!

Good luck with further tests and please, come back to let us know how you're doing!

The Mods

Darcys-mom

Hi Flo- I am just a little bit ahead of you in this process. My oncologist made a point of telling me that because the MRI was so soon after the biopsy that the change in size was due to swelling.

Salamandra

Hi Flo80,

The stage will depend a lot on the size. But moderately differentiated and ER+/PR+ are all positive for prognosis, and HER2+ would not change that (though it would change the treatment steps).

MRI can inflate the size, because of swelling related to the biopsy - that's what my surgeon told me. The surgeon might be able to give you their prediction of the size. Mine thought that it would be closer to the biopsy estimate than the MRI estimate. She was right, though it was higher than the biopsy estimate.

All that said, they won't know stage until after post-surgery pathology of both tumor and lymph nodes. You could literally be anywhere on the staging chart depending on how your lymph nodes, size, grade, and punch biopsy come back. The waiting part is incredibly hard.

What stage does is statistically group you with people at similar risk for recurrence, including distant recurrence. But remember that statistics are truly useful in the aggregate - for health policy makers, health insurance companies, setting standards of care, etc. They can't tell you what will happen to you as an individual. Stage 1a folks can and do recur and pass away, and Stage 3b folks live long lives with no recurrence. Even some Stage 4 folks are live for a decade or more now. You never know which bucket you're in until you either recur or die of something else that's not breast cancer related.

Flo80

thank you so miv

Flo80

Thank you

Flo80

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. My only concern is that before I wait the tumour might not spread any where. I still have around 5 days till Friday to see the surgeon and then again a weekend falls.

Thank you