Do I have a real chance of dying?!?!?!?

Hi there and welcome. Please share the 'other stuff' about your diagnosis to help us answer your question: ER; PR; HER2; size of tumour; lymph nodes affected.

If you have been told the cancer is early stage, then most people will not die but some could. Everyone's cancer is unique. But there are many, many treatments for bc.

This forum is a great place. Look for the information for newly diagnosed and interpreting your pathology report.

And talk to your doctor. Ask anything you want to know, including explanation of the pathology report and prognosis.

Racy, her biopsy found both IDC and DCIS. It's very common to find both together and when that happens, the diagnosis and treatment plan is based on the IDC.

Greeneyes, at this point, after just a core needle biopsy and before you know your final diagnosis or have your your treatment plan, it is too early to be looking at any survival stats - simply because they are all over the map and you don't know where you fit. I can tell you that with invasive cancer, the survival rate won't be 100% - so yes, there is a chance of dying - but if you have a small invasive cancer with favourable characteristics, it's very possible that your odds of long-term survival will be very high. This is information that your Medical Oncologist will be able to discuss with you but at this point you don't have most of the information the MO needs to even begin to make that assessment.

Greeneyes, the following image, taken from the BC.org website, shows how DCIS evolves to become invasive cancer. So you can see why it is that most women diagnosed with IDC are also found to have some DCIS - it's because most cases of IDC started as DCIS. The cell progression doesn't always continue; it can stop at any point, which is why some women are diagnosed with ductal hyperplasia or atypical ductal hyperplasia, or with pure DCIS. But if you have IDC, the odds are high that the cell progression went through this process and there may also be some DCIS present.

Greeneyes, I was you several years ago You've gotten good info from others above, so I'll just speak to your question about age since I was 34. My oncologist told me that breast cancer in young women tends to be more aggressive, has a higher mortality rate and can often differ biologically from breast cancer in older women. (I've seen studies about this and find it interesting although a bit disconcerting) But she also went on to say that just because it tends to be those things doesn't mean it is true for every young woman with breast cancer. Each woman and breast cancer is different. So tools like Oncotype tests and Mammoprint tests are very useful in sifting through what treatment is necessary for an individual, add that with the experience of the oncologist and others. Oncotype testing (I believe) does provide some information based on age, I'm not sure about Mammoprint hopefully someone else will have that info.

My jaw has dropped open at the death with dignity comment? Good grief if you were just diagnosed in Friday why on earth would that come up? I'm sorry someone said that to you. There is a lot of information to take in and yes it is very scary in the beginning but it gets better!! It can be a tough road some days but there are tons of ladies who are living happy lives many years after diagnosis.

Wishing you both well

If my onc mentioned the death with dignity law when I'm not stage IV, I'd find a new onc.

voilalia, I'm sorry that you've been diagnosed and have had to join us here.

You said that your cancer team will be meeting on Tuesday to make a recommendation about your treatment. Is that when you will be meeting with them? Have you had your surgery and other scans, or at this point have you only had a biopsy that found cancer? As I mentioned to GreenEyes, after only a biopsy, it's generally much too early to know the whole diagnosis, prognosis and treatment plan. But if you've had your surgery and possibly other scans, you (and your doctors) may be further down the road towards having more complete information.

I hope you get all the information you need to understand the details of your staging and diagnosis (as much as is known at this point), as well as clarity about your treatment plan and what comes next. It's always confusing at the start, and it's always a steep learning curve as we enter this brand new world of breast cancer terminology and treatments. My best advice is to ask questions until you are satisfied that you know what's going on and what's happening next.

Good luck with your appointment and please post again to let us know what you find out. Once you have a treatment plan, there are lots of forums here where women going through the same treatments, or women who've had these treatments in the past, will be able to offer advice and support.

Yikes to the death with dignity comment. I was dxd stage IV last year at 41 and I would have lost it with thatstatement. Fortunately my MO will not give me an expiration date and since I have a single bone met, they are treating me with curative intent. A positive approach makes a big difference.

FYI, on the hysterectomy, while I know plans differ person to person, I happened to ask my MO if this might be in my future. She and probably other docs would try to keep the hormones suppressed in the least invasive way possible, many premenopausal women start with tamoxifen as I have.

The most important thing for all of you just starting is to have full confidence, trust and to feel comfortable with your MO. This is the key person that's going to create your treatment plan and follow your progress. What I wrote above is just me. That would put me off running unless in the convo the topic came up and that was appropriately addressed.

I was and am still very lucky to have a great caring team. My schedule of follow ups without any issues is I see my surgeon twice a year for 5 years then annually for life (since I have bmx he is my mammo), plastic surgeon once I'm all done once a year for life, MO every 3 mo now to go to every 6 mo in a few years to annually for life. Another important person to have on your team is your pcp. I happen to have a pcp who has been bc NED since 2004 so she is on top of whatever tests my MO doesn't order in addition to my general health that pcps check for. I see her every 4 mo mainly for cholesterol, blood chemistry, and liver function test otherwise if she didn't know about bc I'd be an annual patient.

I also don't know how I would have done it without a planner in which each day has a lot of space to write under. I wrote all my questions down and took it with my notebook to write down the answers. I also kept a journal to write down how I was feeling, side effects, etc so when my docs ask how I'm doing I had details. I knew I would forget things so this was my backup.

This forum is a great source of support with people with great advice. It saved me. As already stated once you get a treatment plan in place, it'll be a load off of you.

Hang in there. We're all here to try and help you just like the ones that took the time to help us when we were in your shoes.