DCIS - need urgent help (did lumpectomy)

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786786
786786 Member Posts: 5
edited October 2015 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

Hello Everyone,

We are in desperate need for your help in making a decision. My mom was diagnosed with DCIS (stage 0 cancer - noninvasive) in her left breast so the treatment was to do lumpectomy and get radiations. She is also a heart patient. We went with it and by grace of God, the procedure went smoothly and she had a speedy recovery within two weeks. The chunk they took out was about 6 cm and the pathology report showed 4 inadequate margins. Radiation can't be done because the margins are positive. Thankfully, this 6cm lump was all DCIS and non-invasive.

The doctor has recommend mastectomy for my mom because of extent of DCIS seen but she can't guarantee how much is in there? She will be doing biopsy in her lymp nodes to make sure they are cancer free and the pathologist will be present to assure that. We heard mastectomy is a painful procedure and more damaging.

The doctor don't know how widespread it is (the surgeon have taken out what was shown in the mammogram and ultrasound ) so she can re-exercise that 4 involved margins of the lumpectomy site that turned out to be positive. For radiation, we need negative margins.

We are scared to take extensive decision since my mom won't be feeling her sensitive nerves and etc but we are confused and decided to go with the doctor. What if we start regretting after the results that there was just little bit left that could have been tackle with lumpectomy. If there is a lot more of DCIS then we'd be satisfied with our decision. Have any of you been in this situation?

The questions that concerned us, what if there is little bit more DCIS left on the other hand which can be taken out with lumpectomy. This is all dependent on chance. The growth rate of my mom DCIS is slow but we don't know what if it becomes fast?

Please help us out what to do as it is non-invasive cancer and we don't want it to become invasive. It's a very tough decision.

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  • Eee3
    Eee3 Member Posts: 29
    edited September 2015

    It is a very tough decision and a personal one for everyone. I think the best thing to do at this point is to seek as much information as possible.

    These are some questions that I would want to know some answers to at this point...

    Have they done a contrast MRI to try to gauge how much is remaining or to see if it is possibly in the lymph nodes or other breast?

    What is the proximity to her chest wall? Is that one of the positive margins? How close will radiation have to be to her chest? Does this have the possibility to impact her already current heart issues? If they do a mastectomy, is it possible that she may not need radiation?

    How much will the mastectomy toll her body vs radiation?

    What do they think the chances are they can get clear margins on next lumpectomy?

    The best thing to do is ask a lot of questions and make sure that your decision is an informed one. No one can tell you what will be the best decision.

    Hoping all goes well with whichever route is chosen:)

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  • JKB
    JKB Member Posts: 1
    edited September 2015

    if you have questions and concerns that aren't being answered by the team of doctors you now have it might be time to get a second opinion. Call your insurance company first and if allowed call another oncologist. My cancer and treatment was not as extensive but I did consider getting a second opinion.

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited September 2015

    Dear JKB, Welcome to the community. We hope to see you here. Keep us posted and thanks for your story. The Mods

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  • Lipglossmommie
    Lipglossmommie Member Posts: 44
    edited October 2015

    I'm sorry your Mother has to go through this ordeal. I had non invasive DCIS stage 0. I was 42 and have 2 small babies. I could have done a lumpectomy w 6 weeks radiation but chose to have an bilateral mastectomy and 9 lymphnodes removed . All my margins were clear. I had a wonderful BC surgeon and a wonderful plastic surgeon, I honestly never felt any pain and I also had major reconstruction following, i took my pain meds faithfully. I just wanted to let people know that sometimes it isn't as painful to some.


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