Rethinking treatment

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carlite
carlite Member Posts: 16
edited June 2014 in Managing Side Effects of Breast Cancer and Its Treatment

The final pathology report came back with high grade dcis,her2 positive, ER,PR+, comedonecrosis, and 1cm with wide clear margins...if I had known this, from the biopsy, probably may have had a mastectomy...before I begin rads,I am thinking about a mastectomy instead...any thoughts? Lease!

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  • thefuzzylemon
    thefuzzylemon Member Posts: 2,630
    edited October 2012

    I would probably have a nice discussion with your healthcare team. You need to feel great about the decisions you make...if a mx would make you feel better, then that's got my vote! This is your journey and you never want to say I wish I should have....

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  • Jennt28
    Jennt28 Member Posts: 2,021
    edited October 2012

    I initially had a lumpectomy and then almost immediately felt it was the wrong decision. As you will see from my signature I quit rads and scheduled a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction.



    I have never felt so good as the day I quit rads and started the MX/recon process. And this decision is one of the ones in my life that I have been absolutely sure was right. No regrets!



    If you feel like you started off on the wrong path it is not too late to change the plan and get back on the right path :-)



    Jenn

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited October 2012

    How wide were your surgical margins?  And did you have an MRI?  MRIs are often very effective at showing high grade DCIS, so if there is anything more in your breast, an MRI provides the best chance of seeing it.  If there is nothing else suspicious in your breast and you have wide surgical margins, then even with though you have an aggressive pathology, your recurrence risk might be quite low after rads, particularly if you choose to take Tamoxifen.  1cm is a small tumor.

    You may want to read the following article and input your information into their scoring table. This will give you an idea as to what your VPNI score might be, and based on that, whether you have a high recurrence risk with a lumpectomy + rads.  This would be good information to discuss with your doctors.  As the others have said, it is important to be comfortable with your treatment decisions, but it's also important to make your decisions with good and real information about your specific diagnosis and pathology and risks, not based only on your fears.  

    Choosing Treatment for Patients With Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: Fine Tuning the University of Southern California/Van Nuys Prognostic Index

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