DCIS Stage 0 to Stage IV
I was diagnosed with DCIS, papillary and micropapillary patterns, flat epithelial atypia, columnar cell changes last week. My surgeon said I did NOT have cancer but that this 3mm mass COULD turn into cancer if we left it alone in 10 years. I asked when he would want to cut it out, thinking maybe a year or two down the line, he said Thursday at noon..never ask a surgeon when to cut...but he is well respected/top surgeon in the area, etc..... and so lumpectomy was done Thursday at noon. He also recommended 5 day twice a day radiation. He thinks that is all I will most likely need...
I then spoke to one oncologist who said 5 day only if margins are clear and not multi-focal, then I face 6 weeks once a day radiation.
I asked surgeon if I have should double mastecomy and he practically screamed INSANE... that would be insane... BRCA negative, mother negative. I now await my biopsy results from lumpectomy.
But I am very aggressive and wonder how many of you Stage III, Stage IV survivors started like me at this Stage 0? Although on one hand I feel really lucky to get this so early, on the other hand I dread the 6 month follow up visits and the waiting that goes on, (got shingles waiting for BRCA test results, fainted in radiology office 5 seconds after biopsy for above....). I have no problem getting double mastectomy and getting those implants (almost like everyone else here in South Florida anyway.. even those without BC....) but on the other hand is that truly INSANE like surgeon says...
So I guess my question is do the Stage III and Stage IV survivors really start out at Stage 0? I am not sure how aggressive I should be here... thank you.
Comments
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Aelaine,
Honestly, there is no way I'd go through a double mastectomy if I were in your shoes! You have a very small Stage 0 cancer, and your chances of never having cancer again are over 90%. This surgery and recovery are not a walk through the park, recovery can be complicated, and you can have long term physical effects from it. With that being said, many of the girls here will tell you that when they go into do the lumpectomy, sometimes there is more cancer than they thought, and the treatment plan has to change. You do have to kind of gear yourself that things can change, and that you have to be prepared to respond appropriately.
Cancer is a very scary thing, for sure. You might benefit from seeing a therapist to help you through all of this if you are comfortable with that. But come here and see us too. We're all good therapy for each other.
Good luck with whatever you decide is best for you.
Hugs
Bobbie
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Thanks Bobbie.... I guess I am just scared before I get the full biopsy results tomorrow.... scared this will be the beginning of the end of my life... but fingers crossed....
Your comments are highly appreciated.
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I've wondered the very same thing... someone had posted a while back about someone whose initial diagnosis was supposedly DCIS over 10 years ago and ultimately she was stage IV, but it turned out her initial diagnosis was stage I IDC.
I personally would never get a double mastectomy with just a DCIS diagnosis, although (after my third biopsy in a year) I'm starting to think a single mastectomy (with micro-fat-grafting reconstruction - I don't want an implant) is looking more appealing.
So far I've had a lumpectomy + reexcision which got clear margins, but there were still a few microcalcifications left so I had them biopsied last week. Hoping to get my results today too... ack, not looking forward to hearing "It's more DCIS; you need a mastectomy!" I was hoping to keep cancer away for the rest of my life with nutrition/lifestyle changes (e.g. iodine).
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Hi Aelaine,
I can understand your concern. I went through exactly the same decisions/concerns that you are facing now some months ago.
I was diagnosed with DCIS, Grade 3 (high grade) at the end of April following a mammogram and biospy. A wide area excision was done on 8th May but the margins weren't big enough so another excision was completed on 22nd May. Because I have quite large boobs my surgeon advised that 'in less large ladies he may have completed a mastectomy but he would be able to carry out the excision and make it cosmetically acceptable as he had a fair amount to work with" which he did. I have a smallish dent and a scar which will fade but otherwise my boobs are almost exactly the same.
Because I had grade 3, i.e. the more aggressive type, it was recommended that I undergo either 4 weeks of daily radio (slightly higher dosage) or six weeks daily. My oncologist advised that the outcome of either treatment would be the same only I may have slightly more side effects on the higher dosage although exactly the same amount of radio would be given but over a shorter period of time. I went for the four week daily radio and did, in fact, suffer quite badly from what can only be described as burns underneath my breast. This has healed up really well with new skin and no pain at all.
Before undergoing any major surgery I really would serious talk to your team and then take a call. Sure we will be monitored closely over the next 5 years but its a small price to pay rather than go for such drastic action.
If you have any more concerns then happy for you to PM me.
I really do wish you well and lots of success for your treatment moving forward.
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Aelaine, one thing I can say from our recent experience (my wife was initially dx with Stage 1a after her lumpectomy, when in fact it was really Stage IV), is to NOT project too far down the line with your treatment options until you get the pathology back. The most stressful part for us the last two months was thinking too far ahead with respect to whether it would be radiation or chemo, mastectomy or not, etc. As it turned out, the pathology showed Grade 3, HER2+++, multi-focal (although largest was just 7mm), suspect LVI, and other aggressive markers. What initially we thought was just going to be one thing, turned into chemotherapy...
then...
Then, at our request additional staging tests were done and a mass on the liver was found which turned out to be breast metastasis. So, that changed things again. What we thought was early stage DCIS with "suspect" for invasion, turned out to be much more.
The moral here is twopart
1) Don't project too far in advance, it will only make you more anxious than you need to be.
2) Personally I don't give a hoot about "ASCO Standards". If we followed them we never would have known about the liver. So if your insurance covers it (thankfully ours did), I'm a big advocate of trying to do as much initial staging as possible. PET/CT, tumor markers (esp. 15-3 & 27-29) since the rest were normal but these were not, Circulating Tumor Cell test, Brain MRI, Bone Scan.
Peace of mind is hard to come by with BC (in our opinion), and at least having a good baseline of where you are will help you in the future to manage the anxiety that may come from every feeling you get in your body.
(BTW, wife is 32, BRCA neg, no family history at all)
PS, if you have implants the decision to do radiation is complicated by the effect the radiation has, especially if a future reconstruction might be considered. Keep that in mind.
One thing that we really wish we had in the early stages of the decision making process (where you are now), is a resource like this board to bounce our concerns off (thankfully we found it). So be your own biggest advocate and make sure your voice is heard with the doctors.
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Although there are differences of opinion on what to call DCIS, most oncologists would say that it is cancer. Pre-invasive or non-invasive cancer are the most commonly used terms. The cells do proliferate uncontrollably (one characteristic of cancer) but have not (yet?) undergone the change that makes them invade the walls of the ducts or other structures (a key characteristic of invasive cancer).
You do need to consult a radiation oncologist to get recommendations on whether you are a candidate for the 5-day accelerated partial breast irradiation or not. Since it is a newer procedure with shorter follow-up data there are numerous factors that need to be considered.
Since I had lumpectomy and whole breast irradiation, I have no personal experience with mastectomy but I think others on this board can tell you that double mastectomy with implants is a much bigger surgery with a much more difficult recovery process than having implants for cosmetic purposes.
Although it is tempting to try to reach a decision quickly and get the process going, I found it important to take it one step at a time and research each step thoroughly, going to one or more doctors of each specialty, in order to be comfortable that I had an accurate diagnosis and understood the implications of all treatment options. I share your desire to be aggressive but no treatment guarantees 0% chance of cancer in the future and all have possible side-effects.
There are people who initially had a Stage 0 diagnosis and later had Stage IV but that is unusual, especially with reasonable monitoring.
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Thank you ALL so much for you responses from around the world no less.. It is comforting for sure.
I go to 1 of 2 oncologists today for an opinion, then another in a week or so. Yes, getting to talk to as many docs as possible... but at the end of the day it can be somewhat my decision on how aggressive I get I suppose... we will see the biopsy results tomorrow from the lumpectomy...only hope that my initial surgeon is right about everything he thinks I have/should do...
Any opinion on supplements...is iodine in a pill form? selenium? omega 3 supplements? green tea extract supplement? I have already started drinking tons of green tea... the Japanese women have lowest incidence of breast cancer and that is all they drink... I do not want to go too crazy.. but hey a little green tea and a few extra pills a day could not hurt, right???
Thanks again to everyone.
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Do any women who started with DCIS Stage 0 ever end up being Stage IV? Yes, that can happen. Overall the long term survival rate for women initially diagnosed with DCIS is around 97% - 98%, which means that 2% - 3% of women initially diagnosed with DCIS do go on to develop Stage IV breast cancer. However, what's important to understand is that for women who start out with pure DCIS (i.e. not DCIS with a microinvasion) the only way that this can happen is if they have a recurrence and if this recurrence is not found until it has already progressed to become invasive. For women who have pure DCIS who do not have a recurrence, the long term survival rate is 100%.
This means that for most women with DCIS, the objective of treatment is to reduce their recurrence risk to the lowest level possible. For some women, particularly those who have large amounts of high grade DCIS, the only way to get their recurrence risk to an acceptably low level is to have a mastectomy. I had over 7cm of high grade DCIS with comedonecrosis, with DCIS in two areas of my breast. If I'd had a lumpectomy, while it might have been possible to get clear margins, there's no way (based on the amount of DCIS and the size of my breast) that I could have had wide margins. With narrow margins and a large amount of aggressive DCIS, my recurrence risk probably would have been in the range of 60% - 70% (based on studies I've seen). Radiation and Tamoxifen at best could have reduced this to around 20% - still pretty high. So for me, a mastectomy really was the best option.
Your situation is very different. Assuming that your diagnosis doesn't change once the final pathology report is available, for you, with such a tiny amount (only 3mm) of micropapillary and papillary DCIS (typically low or moderate grade, not high grade/aggressive), there is no reason why your doctors should not be able to achieve large clear margins with a lumpectomy, whatever your breast size. With good margins and such a small, non-aggressive form of DCIS, your recurrence rate, even before radiation and Tamoxifen, likely will be less than 10%. In fact studies have shown that for those with small tumors and good margins, the recurrence rate - even without radiation - can actually be as low as 5%. Add radiation, and your recurrence rate could be as low as 3% and likely won't be any higher than 5%. This is not much more than what your recurrence rate would be if you had a mastectomy (typically the recurrence rate after a mastectomy is 1% - 2%).
As for the surgery itself, a mastectomy or bilateral mastectomy with implant reconstruction is major surgery, often with complications and with no guarantee of the results. It is nothing like cosmetic breast enlargement. With breast enlargement, you still have all the soft natural breast tissue; the implant is placed behind the breast tissue, where it's enlarges the breast but otherwise is pretty much unnoticeable. With breast reconstruction, all you have is the implant - there is no natural breast tissue left. The feel and movement of the breast - and sometimes the appearance too - is completely different than that of a natural breast.
The other thing to keep in mind is that if you have a mastectomy or bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction, you are making changes to your body for the rest of your life. You lose all the natural feelings in your breast - and your nipple sensation. It's gone for life. And complications may arise years after your surgery. So you in effect are taking this very small amount of pre-invasive cancer and turning it something that will affect your life for the rest of your life. On the other hand, with the lumpectomy, even if you need the 6 weeks of radiation, you can be finished with everything - and still have your natural breasts - within two to three months. That's the choice you face.
I understand the fear that you are dealing with - that's normal and something we all experience after we are diagnosed. For most of us, whether we have a mastectomy or a lumpectomy, it takes a while for that fear to fade. But for most of us, whether we have a mastectomy or lumpectomy, over time the fear does fade. For me, it took a couple of years. I think what's important is that as you are making this decision, you shouldn't think about how you feel now but you should consider how you will feel in 5 years and 10 years, when this diagnosis is well behind you. Think about how your surgical choice will affect you then, and then make your decision.
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Aelaine- I was initially told I had "pre-cancer" and had it removed. The path report came back with DCIS in the margins. I chose to do a bilateral nipple sparing mastectomy. My reasoning was I did not want to worry about it for the rest of my life, if there was a recurrence and it was close to the nipple then NSM was no longer an option, if I did lumpectomy with radiation and there was a recurrence then reconstruction becomes harder though not impossible. After my MX my final path report showed multiple spots of DCIS that had never shown up on any of the mammograms, ultrasounds and MRI's that I had done so I would have been right back in for a mammogram before too long.
That being said, I miss my natural breasts. I just had my exchange surgery in June but am having trouble adjusting to implants. I never wanted them even though I was quite small. My breasts feel numb. I kept my nipples but there is no sensation in them. The tissue expanders (TE's) can be uncomfortable and they are usually in for about 4 months. I originally thought it would be no big deal since women have breast augmentations done every day. I thought the only difference would be they're removing the breast tissue first. I have to say, though, that if this is how women feel who have augmentation I don't know why anyone would choose to do this voluntarily. Just make sure you weigh the pros and cons before deciding since you'll have to live with it the rest of your life. There are more threads on here about lumpectomy vs MX. I would read as much as possible before making your decision. If it is early DCIS you have time to do that. I was DX in December and didn't choose MX until March. Good luck!
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OK I just need sense knocked into me... you helped... I know double mastectomy is major surgery not something to rush into with side effects/complications. I always thought though as I had like 8 benign biopsies over the past few years before this that if something came back positive I would just get them off.... However now with this surgeon, and dare I say a new 6 week boyfriend... I am changing my tune... I want so to make the decision based on expert opinions, more than one, my gut, and nothing but nothing to do with boyfriend... which I am smart enough not to do but on some level... so many emotions... it is very hard...
OK thank you for your time, effort, advice and now off to first oncologist appointment, some Harvard educated genius young woman... perhaps another knock on the head is what I need to calm down...
Thanks again.
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Are you willing to accept losing all pleasurable sensation in your breasts + a long surgical process + a reconstruction you're not guaranteed to like...because you're not willing to accept a (probably) 4% (or lower) risk of recurrence (assuming radiation and tamoxifen)?
I'd suggest consulting with a radiation oncologist before you make any final decisions. I also think some of this is premature, since you haven't gotten your path results back yet. I don't like making serious decisions without all the data.
If you're margins are not clear, most likely you will be having a re-excision to remove any remaining DCIS, not relying on rads to zap it.
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Kate, to your comment "I have to say, though, that if this is how women feel who have augmentation I don't know why anyone would choose to do this voluntarily" I can tell you for certain that breast augmentation feels nothing like implant reconstruction.
I had a single mastectomy and decided to go just a little bit larger with my reconstruction - from a large "A"/small "B" to a full "B". To achieve symmetry, I had an implant added into my good breast. This was done at the same time as my exchange surgery. Interestingly, the recovery from the augmentation was a bit more painful than the recovery from the exchange - the exchange surgery was painless whereas putting the implant in on the good side, without pre-stretching the muscle with an expander, did result in a bit of pain for a week or so. And from a results standpoint, there was, and is, a world of difference. My augmented breast is my natural breast, just a bit larger, with all the same feeling and movement of a natural breast. No one would know that I have an implant in this breast. My reconstructed breast is, well.... you know what that's like! It looks like a breast, it fills a bra like a breast, but in any other way it doesn't feel like or act like a breast.
It is unfortunate that because augmentation is so common and so easy, many women choosing to have mastectomies assume that implant breast reconstruction will be equally easy and will provide the same results. Implant reconstruction results can be very good - for reconstruction - and this type of reconstruction is a good choice for many women (myself being one of them). However comparing the results of implant augmentation with implant reconstruction is like comparing a soft, ripe peach to a baseball.
Aelaine, let us know how it went with the oncologist, and most importantly, what the pathology results of lumpectomy are.
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Well I saw my first oncologist who did say yes I had stage 0 cancer. We also got the pathology report back and YIPEE negative margins, no multi-focal, and no malignancy. Apparently the entire thing to start with was 1mm... Like a pencil dot...
So now to decide on 5 day twice a day radiation or 6 week once a day radiation, the 5 day with the balloon insert that targets the site exactly vs. the 6 week whole breast radiation which also exposes my lungs/heart to radiation.
I was also told once I have radiation in a breast I can never radiate again, so if this comes back it is mastectomy... So now I have the surgeon saying 5 day, this oncologist originally consulting me for the 6 week, she is from Boston/Harvard/Beth Israel says they are conservative up there and the last to change to new modalities and this 5 day does not have a long term clinical study on it, only started a few years back, but once we got the pathology report which we did at the end of my consult she said she could be convinced of the 5 day. She said I should let the radiation oncologist pretty much break the tie between her and my surgeon. Also wants me on that side effect plagued tamoxifen if I am estrogen positive which we are not sure yet...
Any thoughts out there on 5 day radiation vs. 6 week from anyone that got the cancer back? 5 day is convenient, 6 day my breast gets sunburned and I get fatigued. I really do not mind either, just want to make the correct decision so this never comes back....
Unsure as to what to do...
Aelaine
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Aelaine, great news on the pathology report.
Clear margins is what we are all looking for, but what's just as important is the size of the margins. Margin size is one of the key factors that goes into determining your recurrence risk. With a 2mm clear margin you will have a higher recurrence risk than if you have a 10mm clear margin. That in turn can help with your radiation decision, first whether radiation is even necessary (with large margins and such a small tumor, it might not be), and then what type of radiation to have. The size of the margins should be in your pathology report. Do you have that info?
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Aelaine,
Congrats (although that sounds weird, everything's relative right?) Everyone is giving great personal experiences/advice, so I have nothing to add regarding your diagnosis...but I too developed shingles during a very stressfull time after a surgery (non cancer related.) I just want to encourage you to take super good care of yourself during this process and ask for help when you need it. Let people help you too
Shingles suck..as you know, so be good to yourself.traci
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Aelaine, did you have a MRI to determine there is nothing else going on in either breast? I started with DCIS with biopsy, saw the radiologist for the one week mammosite, had an MRI found it to be multifocal in same quadrant, biopsied the second one to be sure. Didn't want full breast radiation because I knew I would want some type of reconstruction to the quadrant and didn't want any residual side effects of radiation. Decided on BNSM one step, . Final path ALH along with the other two DCIS and ADH on the cancer free side. Take your time and write down the pros/cons of both tx with your oncologist.I am also in South Florida.
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Saw oncologist yesterday did not recommend MRI/PET at all, said that would be overkill.
I am not sure yet of my margin size... I do not think the surgeon took out that much, he said biopsy took out most of this.. although he did say a golf ball worth.. seeing him in a few hours.
Still not sure to go with 5 day radiation or 3 week version... only get one shot at radiating this breast....hard decision.. any thoughts?
Thanks
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I ran into the MRI or not to MRI controversy, one doc said no, one said yes, went to a third for tiebreaker - who said yes. Since then I learned that many others I saw for second opinions would have called it overkill and been against it....
Long story short, I had the MRI which detected a second area of DCIS in the same breast. While that complicated things quite a bit, I'm glad I had it. I mean, if I'm going to have surgery anyway, I'd like to remove all the nasty we can identify.
As far as long or short radiation - I had 5 weeks once a day. It was a pain in the butt to go every day, but it's over now and it wasn't so horrible. It was worse emotionally than it was physically. I did have some side effects, but healed quickly.
For rads questions, I'd suggest you post on the rads section of the site (and read old posts there as well). You'll get more info more quickly. While most of the women will have had disease more advanced than DCIS, their rads experience will be very similar, if not identical.
I'd also like to mention that I take Tamox now and don't really have any noticeable side effects.
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Aelaine,
I'm another one who supports getting an MRI. My surgeon insisted on it before I had my surgery. His position was similar to what sweatyspice said, which is that if you are being treated for BC, you might as well get as complete a picture as possible about any and all problems in the breasts, and address all those problems at the same time. If the MRI shows something else, don't you want to know about it? And if it shows nothing else, won't that make you much more comfortable?
As for the margin size, a golf ball is approx. 4cm in diameter. So if you had a 1mm tumor, then unless the tumor happened to be right near the edge of the removed tissue, you should have huge margins. In fact, if your margins are as big as they might be if that much breast tissue was removed (relative to the small size of your tumor), it makes me wonder why radiation is even being recommended. So to me, the questions you need to ask the general oncologist and radiation oncologist are:
- Based on the surgery that's been done and the pathology and margins from that surgery, what is your recurrence risk if you have no additional treatment?
- How much would your recurrence risk come down if you have the shorter version of radiation?
- How much would your recurrence risk come down if you have the full course of radiation?
That's what you need to know to make this decision. Your oncologist should be providing this info.
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Just piping in to agree with Beesie.
Except that they might not have stats for the shorter course v the longer course, but it's still a question you should ask/discussion you should have.
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Aelaine,
So sorry that you are going through this mess. I promise that in a couple of years, the daily fear will be a lot less than it is today.
Knowing what the margin size is is very important. I would think that they would be huge, considering the fact that you had minimal disease. Once you know that information, then you will have a plan.
I also agree with the other ladies- try to push for an MRI, just to see what's going on before you have your surgery.
I had 2mm of DCIS and about 2mm of ADH. The DCIS was indeed removed in biopsy therefore the margins were very large. The benefits of radiation (for my pathology) were very small, and after a couple of opinions, I passed on it. I am on tamoxifen, which has not really caused me very many problems.
I do have an annual MRI, which I do recommend, and rotate that with a digital mammo/ultrasound. My sister has LCIS, so I did get tested for the BRCA gene and fortunately for my wonderful daughter, I am negative.
Radiation may not be recommended for you, depending on your margins. I can't remember if you stated your grade and whether or not you had comedo necrosis. Those also are important factors in deciding on rads.
Having said all that, Thank Goodness!!! You will survive this. It certainly was a terrible time for me and I am not planning to revisit it again.
I wish you the best,
Nada
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I am going to add my 2 cents in for the MRI as well - I initially had 2 microcysts (3mm and 7mm) that were the suspicious finding on my mammogram. These were biopsied and found to be DCIS. I then had an MRI which showed another 8x5x9cm area full of little foci (<5mm) of DCIS too!!! Didn't show on the mammo at all!!! So I am a big believer in the MRI...
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Folks, I am adding my two cents with about the Canadian protocol (16 rads vs 33). This was a HUGE study of more than 10,000 women that tracked rate of recurrance as well as cosmetic outcome, Statistically, there was no difference in outcome. I chose that protocol.
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I don't think Aelaine was referring to the Canadian protocol, I think she was talking about mammosite...Aelaine, didn't you say 5 days with a balloon?
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Beesie- Thanks for your post about the difference between augmentation and MX/Recon. I learned another difference first hand today. After exchange I've been experiencing a lot of rippling which my PS says is the implant showing because my skin is so thin (even though she used Alloderm). She said with aug the ripples on the implant don't show because it's under the breast tissue. She told me implants were designed for aug not reconstruction and that thinner skinned women can have permanent rippling.
You're right when you say "because augmentation is so common and so easy, many women choosing to have mastectomies assume that implant breast reconstruction will be equally easy and will provide the same results" because I was one of those women and no one bothered to tell me differently. Thanks for educating others.
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Yes I was talking about Mammosite.
HOWEVER.. I just had GYN exam this morning.. my annual.. and I have an ovarian cyst with some blood around it. He thinks it is a hemorraghic cyst and would want me to go on 1 month of birth control pills to get a period, I missed mine this month with all this stress over above... if the oncologist says I can take 1 month birth control pills IF the 1mm mass was estrogen negative results we are still waiting for... BUT NOW I AM TOTALLY SCARED of having ovarian cancer... not in my family, not BRCA positive.. waiting until Friday for CA-125 blood test results... I dont know how much more waiting I can take.... but I am off literally to see the radiation oncologist who will most likely tell me to do the 5 day mammosite and then I go get balloon for that tomorrow.. unless with this new ovarian cyst thing changes everything.... I was so excited to be almost done with this... I am close to menopause so maybe this ovarian cyst thing is nothing... any thoughts???
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I'm for the MRI as well, I had a BRCA for the sake of my kids and while I was awaiting the BRCA results the genetic counselor at the BC center suggested that I have a breast MRI as well.. Even before the BRCA negative results were in the breast MRI had caught the DCIS.. I had no early indications of bc from any of the mammograms including a mamogram that had been done approx. 2 weeks before the breast MRI.. When the MRI showed "suspicious area" my bs (at the time) wasn't convinced, he had me run another mammo this time digital as well as an ultra both of them showed nothing - the biopsy confirmed DCIS grade 3 (later a second opinion on the tissue slide showed a DCIS grade 2 - at a pathology lab that specialized in bc).. So MRI's are not invasive (except for the injection of the tracking agent) and it has been suggested by some in the medical field that MRI's will replace mammo's in the future (with more use they will be less expensive). Good luck I wish you all the best!! Deirdre
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Aelaine - you might want to read these threads about Mammosite/Contura/Brachytherapy (from the radiation forum on this site - "Radiation Therapy: Before, During and After," listed within the "Tests, Treatments and Side Effects" section on the main index for the board.) Frankly, these protocols are not the ones most widely used. I'm not sure of the differences and definitely not sure which is being recommended for you:
http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/70/topic/753589
http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/70/topic/737886
http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/70/topic/745575
http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/70/topic/753512
http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/70/topic/744413
http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/70/topic/750397
(I'm sorry, I don't think I can get hyperlinks to work when posting from this computer, so you might have to cut and paste the links.)
Just because they're not as widely used doen't mean they wouldn't be as effective or appropriate for you. It does mean that you'll have to do some digging and research to make an informed decision.
I quickly looked through the most recent 10 pages of threads in the rads section of this site to find those links (to threads). I went back to approx New Year's 2010. I'd encourage you to search for older threads as well. You can just browse through the pages of threads, use the search function, or both.
Edited to add: you should have some time to make a decision about radiation, don't let the rad onc pressure you. And if they are pressuring you, ask why they feel there's a rush. Maybe there IS time pressure with these short therapies that I'm not aware of.
As to your gyn issues, sorry but I just don't know. You might also look in other areas of the board for other women's experiences. DCIS is the diagnosis in only 25% of BC cases, which leaves 75% of women who might be able to help with your rads/gyn questions.
Wishing you all the best.
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Yes I meant 5 days with actually I went to radiologist today and it is the 5 day SAVI thing.. balloon..
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Getting balloon tomorrow.. then 5 days next week twice a day. Surgeon recommended it, radiologist did and so did oncologist since mass was so small and nothing in margins.. basically my lumpectomy took out totally healthy tissue which is good and a several good size chunks...
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- 3.1K Not Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned
- 189 Palliative Therapy/Hospice Care
- 488 Second or Third Breast Cancer
- 1.2K Stage I Breast Cancer
- 313 Stage II Breast Cancer
- 3.8K Stage III Breast Cancer
- 2.5K Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
- 13.1K Day-to-Day Matters
- 132 All things COVID-19 or coronavirus
- 87 BCO Free-Cycle: Give or Trade Items Related to Breast Cancer
- 5.9K Clinical Trials, Research News, Podcasts, and Study Results
- 86 Coping with Holidays, Special Days and Anniversaries
- 828 Employment, Insurance, and Other Financial Issues
- 101 Family and Family Planning Matters
- Family Issues for Those Who Have Breast Cancer
- 26 Furry friends
- 1.8K Humor and Games
- 1.6K Mental Health: Because Cancer Doesn't Just Affect Your Breasts
- 706 Recipe Swap for Healthy Living
- 704 Recommend Your Resources
- 171 Sex & Relationship Matters
- 9 The Political Corner
- 874 Working on Your Fitness
- 4.5K Moving On & Finding Inspiration After Breast Cancer
- 394 Bonded by Breast Cancer
- 3.1K Life After Breast Cancer
- 806 Prayers and Spiritual Support
- 285 Who or What Inspires You?
- 28.7K Not Diagnosed But Concerned
- 1K Benign Breast Conditions
- 2.3K High Risk for Breast Cancer
- 18K Not Diagnosed But Worried
- 7.4K Waiting for Test Results
- 603 Site News and Announcements
- 560 Comments, Suggestions, Feature Requests
- 39 Mod Announcements, Breastcancer.org News, Blog Entries, Podcasts
- 4 Survey, Interview and Participant Requests: Need your Help!
- 61.9K Tests, Treatments & Side Effects
- 586 Alternative Medicine
- 255 Bone Health and Bone Loss
- 11.4K Breast Reconstruction
- 7.9K Chemotherapy - Before, During, and After
- 2.7K Complementary and Holistic Medicine and Treatment
- 775 Diagnosed and Waiting for Test Results
- 7.8K Hormonal Therapy - Before, During, and After
- 50 Immunotherapy - Before, During, and After
- 7.4K Just Diagnosed
- 1.4K Living Without Reconstruction After a Mastectomy
- 5.2K Lymphedema
- 3.6K Managing Side Effects of Breast Cancer and Its Treatment
- 591 Pain
- 3.9K Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After
- 8.4K Surgery - Before, During, and After
- 109 Welcome to Breastcancer.org
- 98 Acknowledging and honoring our Community
- 11 Info & Resources for New Patients & Members From the Team