just found out...

vollyball mom...I am 48 also!! I had a lumpectomy for DCIS on 2/6, it was stage 0. The lumpectomy went better than I was expecting, although I was suprised that it took longer than I was expecting to get my energy back (I was off work for 3 days and in retrospect probably should have just taken the whole week off). Since then I have been back to the surgeon for the pathology report (all evidence of cancer removed, clean margins, etc.), consulted w/medical oncologist and just today with radiation oncologist. The med. onc. gave me prescription for tamoxifen for next 5 years (one a day) and the radiation oncologist feels that if my postoperative mammogram (scheduled 1st week of March) shows no remaining microcalcifications then I won't need radiation!! He said a small percentage of DCIS patients don't need radiation if it is caught so early and is so small, no node involvement, clean margins, etc. However, if the f/u mammo shows any remaining calcifications then I would need another excisional biopsy! I was not expecting that but in retrospect I do remember others posting about that.



Try not to get too overwhelmed; the waiting for each procedure/appointment/result is sooo hard. This board has been a great source of support, information & inspiration for me, so I hope you will find that as well. Just trust your gut on what your plan is and the doctors will do their part. What state are you in? Hang in there1

Hi there and sorry you had to join us here. It is such a crazy and scary time.  I know when I was first diagnosed I wondered if there would ever come a time I didn't go to sleep thinking about cancer, waking up 15 times a night thinking about cancer, and first thing in the morning?  Thinking about cancer.  Time does help.  It does get easier.  

As for the right treatment, did you ask for a 2nd opinion?  I always recommend a second opinion.  I don't think there is anything wrong with a lumpectomy with radiation.   The survival rates are the same as if you had a mastectomy.  

Have you had an MRI?

MRIs have been shown to be better than mammograms at showing DCIS, and particularly high grade DCIS.  So before having a lumpectomy, I think it would be advisable to have an MRI to see if it confirms that the area of cancer is what you believe it to be, i.e. approx. 3cm - or if it shows something different.  In my case, while my mammogram showed two separate areas of DCIS, my MRI showed was that I had 'stuff' throughout my breast.  There was no way to know for sure but my surgeon guessed that the 'stuff' was all DCIS. So as much as I would have preferred to have a lumpectomy, I realized that there it was highly unlikely that I would end up with clear margins so I opted for a mastectomy. That turned out to be the right decision, since my breast was in fact full of DCIS.

If you've already had an MRI, or if you have one and it confirms that your area of cancer appears to be 3cm in size, and if your surgeon feels that a lumpectomy can be effective at removing the 3cm area from your breast with acceptable margins, then there is no reason to not have the lumpectomy, if that's your preference. I had a mastectomy but if my area of DCIS had been smaller and a lumpectomy had been a realistic choice, I would certainly have opted for a lumpectomy.  

So if both surgical options - a lumpectomy and a mastectomy - are available to you, then it's simply a matter of choice on which you prefer. With a lumpectomy, it's likely that radiation will be required as well so that's something to consider in the choice. (Radiation might also be required after a mastectomy but usually it's not.) Personally I would have been happy to have radiation if I could have avoided having the mastectomy, but that's my perspective; yours might be different.  And it's all a question of what you feel the right approach is for you. 

I had no idea that an MRI actually shows more than a mammogram. I have 3 areas of DCIS, in different quadrants of the breast. I have my MRI scheduled for this coming Wednesday, and quite frankly I didn't know why I was having an MRI . . . but now I do!