ILC vs Ductal recurrence timings

I've both heard and read ILC recurs later. It has little in common with Ductal -- as you know. Is this another team you get to educate about the differences between the 2. I hope not.

It may depend on how clean of margins they get. I'm glad I had a double BMX after my breast tissue was dissected. My smaller breasts were full of LCIS. I have no idea how well lumpectomies work in treating Lobular breast cancer in larger breasts

I've never been told a distinction between IDC and ILC recurrence times--just ER/PR positive vs. negative recurrence times. Hormone negative tends to recur the first 2-3 years, and hormone positive tends to recur much later, like 10-15 years. FWIW, I had a local PILC recurrence after 8 years, while on Tamoxifen.

Regardless of whether lobular is more likely to recur later or not, I think it's important to be vigilant with check ups and aware of changes to our bodies from the beginning. I almost think it doesn't matter when it might return, but that it could, even a decade or more later.


optimist - my breast surgeon has told me that she wants me to get an annual MRI because lobular can be tricky to pick up on mammography/sonography.

Lily, I insisted on annual MRIs as well, especially since I'd had a lumpectomy and had lots of PLCIS left over in the bad boob. My onc at the time said, "You've been stable for 6 years, you're on Tamoxifen, I think we can discontinue MRIs. Plus you have your mammos". I knew her remark was insurance driven, not clinically driven, so I said, no, we will continue MRIs. We ended up compromising on doing them every other year. The last one I had after skipping a year showed the recurrence in the scar tissue. It didn't show on mammo or u/s.

I don't trust my mammos, either, as they have never caught anything ILC related, but I do continue to get them as they are the only imaging that will show malignant microcalcifications.