dcis that show on mri but nothing else...

Did your surgeon say anything about your menstrual cycle possibly messing it up?  I had DCIS in my right breast that showed on the mammogram and he did an MRI on both and something showed up on my left, but he wanted to do a MRI-guided biopsy.  However, it was during my cycle that it had showed up and he said that could have been a false positive, and indeed, when I went back for the biopsy, the images which had previously shown up were no longer there. 

DCIS showed up on all three for me; mammo, us, and mri.  I recently got copies of the past several years of Doctor visits etc.,  One of the papers I recieved said that I have very busy boobs...I'm real curious about that statement, what exactly does that mean! ~Carol

Hi Mom3band1 - my DCIS only showed up on an MRI..  I was having an MRI as a precaution as I have a strong and unique family history of bc..  I had been having normal mammo's since I was 35 but with the recent information about MRI's being valuable for individuals with high risk of bc my doc thought it would be a good idea.  So he referred me to a bs and the bs ordered an MRI.. The MRI showed an area of "concern" and the bs wasn't convinced.. so he ran a regular mammo, a digital mammo and an ultrasound all were completely clean/negative.. so he decided to order a biopsy but reassured me he was almost 100% certain that it would come back be9.. That biopsy confirmed high grade DCIS.  I insisted on a second opinion of the biopsy tissue at one of the leading breast cancer hospitals and they analysed it as DCIS grade 1.  All testing can give "false positives" but they also can give "false negatives".  As the techs and radiologists are becoming more exposed to breast MRI and as their skills are increasing the MRI is moving ahead as one of the best testing methods for finding EARLY STAGE breast cancer. 

Good luck on Wednesday!  Best, Deirdre

I was sent in for an MRI right away too.  I think that is fairly standard.  I will warn you that the MRI set off all sorts of bells and whistles---I had "spots" on my liver and my thyroid which meant still more tests [which were negative].  So if you get the MRI and then have to do more stuff, don't panic and start planning your funeral [which is what I did!]

Yes, that's odd/different.  My breast MRI only scanned my breasts, when I had a brain MRI (unrelated) it only scanned my brain, etc.  It seems out of the ordinary that your liver and/or thyroid would be included.

It's like sweatyspice says - none of the different types of imaging are perfect, and it's possible for something to show up on one type of imaging and not another.  This, for me, has been one of the most difficult aspects of having cancer - not ever having guarantees with anything.

My mammogram showed a 3 millimeter area of DCIS, that did not show up on ultrasound or MRI.  Then I had a lumpectomy + re-excision, and pathology discovered that the DCIS was actually almost 3 CENTIMETERS.  I now have to choose between going back for a 2nd re-excision and hoping we get clear margins/there are no more surprises, or just getting a mastectomy now.  My surgeon does not suspect that there's any more (pre)cancer in my breast, but I can't help worrying.  My area of DCIS was so much larger than what showed up on ANY type of imaging.  So how can I trust there isn't more of it lurking undetected?