Treatment for small amount of IDC

Shani15

Hi,

I was diagnosed with DCIS in one of my breasts and decided to have a Unilateral mastectomy and they also took out one node out to check. I received the pathology results and they took out a lot of DCIS and found 3 small areas of invasive cancer in which the biggest was 3 mm and the node was clean. My question is if anyone has been in a similar position, what kind of treatment did you received? My surgeon said that I do not require any other treatment other than the mastectomy and active monitoring since the areas of invasive cancer were so small.

MountainMia

Whether or not you need any other treatment probably depends on the hormonal status of the tissue. Are you working with a medical oncologist?

MinusTwo

yes Shani - please see a medical oncologist (MO). Surgeons cut - that's that they are trained to do. The MO will follow all the other things. As Mia says - are hour ER or PR positive? Are you HER+? Lots of other issues since they identified IDC in addition to DCIS>

Shani15

The DCIS was negative to both ER and PR, I do not know if it is HER+ since they do not test DCIS for that at that clinic and I saw a medical oncologist at my first appointment when I was diagnosed because it is a multidisciplinary clinic but since it was DCIS I did not saw her anymore

Beesie

When you have both DCIS and IDC together, hormone testing needs to be done on the IDC because sometimes it can be different from the DCIS. And while it's customary for HER2 status to not be done for DCIS, with a 3mm invasive cancer, the HER2 status of the invasive cancer needs to be done.

Your diagnosis is now IDC, not DCIS, so you do need to see the MO again, and you do need to know the complete hormone status of the IDC.

In the end with a small amount of IDC, the MO might agree that no additional treatment is necessary, but your diagnosis will be either triple negative (ER-/PR-/HER2-) or HER2+ and both of those diagnoses warrant further discussion.

Beesie

Shani, I noticed in one of your other posts that you mentioned that you are 30. I am so sorry that you are dealing with this at such a young age.

To help explain why the ER, PR, and HER2 status of the 3mm invasive tumor is so important, take a look here at the NCCN Treatment Guidelines for triple negative and ER-/HER2+ cancers:

redhead403

Shani15
My idc was 45 cm. I had very dense breasts with microcalcifications. I opted for bilateral Mastectomies with reconstruction. My superior margin was too close, so I had radiation, 25 treatments, no AI's. I was 69 at the time.

Shani15

Thanks everyone, I will definitely get an appointment with the medical oncologist

kksmom3

You probably got an appointment by now, hope so. I too had 3mm of IDC, I had a lumpectomy and 20 radiation treatments. Mine was Er/PR Pos Her 2 neg, so no chemo needed.

Shani15

Yes, when I went to my post-surgery appointment they told me I had to go talk to the MO because the invasive cancer they found was HER2+ and well long story short I will start 12 weeks of chemo on March and Herceptin for a year, radiation is still a maybe because I had a mastectomy with positive margins for DCIS. The day I had the mastectomy I thought I was done with this journey so I’m mentally preparing for the rest of it

Askmissa

My 3mm IDC was found on my mammogram along w DCiS. I had bilateral nipple sparing mastectomy in August of 2019. I took Tamoxifen for two years. Here is a link to my journey which I shared through Youtube videos - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0i-WxYB_8kNACLA52_p4SFdwEy_WA411