Success with only lump, hormone therapy and radiation?

Hi Jenn, I was dx with ILC in September. I am ER and PR positive, node negative. Mammo and MRI showed the lump being 3 cms. which was accurate. My surgeon was able to do a lumpectomy. Now I am waiting for the oncotype dx results to find out if I need chemo along with radiation. During my consult with my surgeon she discussed the options of mastectomy or lumpectomy with radiation. My surgeon advised me that the reoccurrence/survival rates are the same with lumpectomy and radiation as they are with mastectomy.

Janice

I had surgery on Oct 20th. The surgeon did a sentinel node biopsy removing two nodes that were both negative and removed tissue around the lump with clear margins. My surgeon advised me oncotype takes about two weeks. I had an appt with the surgeon 3 weeks after my surgery to check how well I was healing and to tell me about clear margins and lymph node negative results. My surgeon could not tell me the results of the oncotype test as the results and plan of treatment will be discussed with the medical oncologist. That appointment is tomorrow. The waiting has been hard. It willI be five weeks since the surgery. I hope you don't have to wait that long. I would ask your medical team how long you have to wait to get the results so you have an idea. Write down all your questions before your appointment. I brought a taperecorder and at least one other person so they could think of any questions I hadn't thought of.

Hope this helps.

Wishing you all the best with your treatment plan.

Janice

Often you'll see women like me ask for, and receive, more aggressive tx because of the nature of ILC to hide from scans. Because of that, I wasn't positive that doing a UMX on the "bad" breast was enough. ILC has a tendency to be bi-focal--in both breasts--and sure enough, when I had my BMX the pathologist found hyperplasia--pre-cancerous--in the "good" breast.

I had 5 clear mammos in 5 years, and none ever showed any problem, other than dense breast tissue noted in the final mastectomy report. No one told me that dense breast tissue has a tendency to further hide problems.

I didn't want to take the chance of an US or mammo not showing problems since I felt false protection for 5 years while that thing was growing inside me, so I went with everything I could get re: tx.

Claire in AZ

I had a 2.7 cm pleomorphic ILC tumor, no nodes, lump/rads/chemo/tamoxifen/Zometa. I had a local recurrence while on year 8 of Tamoxifen. Don't know if it was b/c it was pleomorphic and therefore more aggressive or what, but the point is I did everything possible except for mx and it came back. I think it would have come back in the chest wall and/or scar even with mx (PS had told me at the time I was likely to recur in the pec muscle with mx b/c I had PLCIS extending in there to begin with).