How could I go for yearly mammos and end up with a 6.5cm tumour?

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  • jodibee
    jodibee Member Posts: 3
    edited February 2011

    I agree. MRI is the best for diagnosis of breast cancer. As a nurse and cancer patient myself I know of many stories where breast cancer was not caught by the routine test but was caught by a MRI. My mother was also diagnosed with breast cancer and was thought to have a tiny area in her left breast and was going to have lumpectomy however her onocologist ordered an MRI which showed two more even smaller spots and her treatment changed to mastectomy. Thank goodness for the MRI, It just may have saved her life!

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  • deiag
    deiag Member Posts: 4
    edited February 2011

    I totally understand your anger. 

    My tumor started out as a cyst - and it changed into a 6.3 cm tumor in less than 45 days. It had gotten as big as 8 cm when I got into chemo. I am a 38A. It was HUGE.

    I had my mammogram performed the very same day I got my biopsy result.

    Mammogram doctor even called in a family member to assure him my tumor was big, indeed, but it had NO SIGNS WHATSOEVER OF BEING MALIGNAT.

    So, yeah, it was an incredibly aggressive triple neg at stageIIIb. 

    My onc says he has to ask me for a twice a year exam  - although he understands that I couldn't care less about it as I just feel nothing is as pointless and time-waisting as a mammo.

    Anyone else feels that way? 

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  • hrf
    hrf Member Posts: 3,225
    edited February 2011

    The same thing happened to me -- 2 times. I had clinical exam 3 times a year plus yearly mammo and ended up wit 3 cm tumor. Fast forward 4 years. Clinical exams 4 times a year. Yearly mammos and yearly MRI and voilà -- 2.2 cm tumor plus 4 lymph nodes. I totally don't trust anyone anymore and I'm still angry. Women are being sold a bill of goods because mammo is not a good diagnostic tool. After all the money going into research there is still no good way to diagnose and no cure

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  • pupfoster1
    pupfoster1 Member Posts: 1,484
    edited February 2011

    I agree that we all have a right to be angry about our missed diagnoses, however, even though MY cancer didn't show up on a mammo I would still encourage EVERY woman to have one once a year at least until they come up with something better (MRI, BSGI, whatever) that our insurance companies will pay for.  Mammos DO pick up SOME cancers, and if ANY woman can be spared the pain that we've been through then they do serve some useful purpose. 

    Love to you all,

    Sharon

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  • dogsandjogs
    dogsandjogs Member Posts: 1,907
    edited February 2011

    I have had mammograms annually for years,  but----My IDC in 1982 did not show up --I found it myself. Then in late 2010 I found another one in the other breast. Ir these cancers take years to grow shouldn't the mammograms show them in the later stages?

    It is really frustrating to realize how often these mammograms miss

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  • scuttlers
    scuttlers Member Posts: 1,658
    edited March 2011

    Add another to the list! I walked from the MRI (with bx) across the hall to have the mammogram. Mammogram came back all clear, nothing suspicious - MRI results were Stage IIIc IBC.

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