Pathology Second Opinion

Options
cyclegal
cyclegal Member Posts: 59
edited September 2017 in Just Diagnosed

Hello, I am three weeks out from a BMX I chose to have as a result of my LCIS diagnosis from last winter. My pathology after the BMX was favorable and resulted with a finding of more LCIS in half of my breast and no DCIS or invasive cancer of any kind. No nodes were taken, and nipples were spared. The thought lingers in my head about having a second opinion on the pathology to confirm there is nothing more than the LCIS (and even no pleomorphic) because this would obviously affect whether additional treatment or prevention should be taken. Perhaps I am being too extreme, but I know that sometimes pathology can be somewhat subjective depending on the doctor looking at the specimen.

I'd appreciate any advice on how to initiate a second pathology opinion...did you ask your breast surgeon, did you ask you oncologist, did you have a pathologist at a different hospital look at it, did you request the opinion yourself from the hospital providing the second opinion? I'm just not sure how to start the process. Thank you!

· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited September 2017

    Johns Hopkins will do a pathology second opinion. You can read more about it here.http://pathology.jhu.edu/department/services/secon...

    I was in the process of sending my slides to them, when I happened to talk to the chief pathologist at my hospital. He was not the original pathologist. He offered to take a look at my slides. It wasn't exactly independent but good enough for me.

    My husband was a financial officer at a regional medical lab. He said pathologists like to talk to patients.

    I know that ADH/DCIS are often a hard call. But apparently IDC is obvious because of some sort of staining they do. I wonder if that is the case for ALH/LCIS/ILC. Might be a question for Lilly Shockley who runs the Johns Hopkins "Ask the Expert" page.

    http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org/services/ask_ex...


    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited September 2017

    Here is another group I used to ask a free pathology question. They also do second opinions.

    http://www.cellnetix.com/Ask-A-Pathologist?page=2


    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • cyclegal
    cyclegal Member Posts: 59
    edited September 2017

    thank you, farmerlucy! This gives me some great info to start with :

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • windingshores
    windingshores Member Posts: 704
    edited September 2017

    I sent my pathology to two different "second opinions." I made the appointments, and called the pathology lab at the original hospital each time. I got to know the path. assistants pretty well. I had to keep on top of where they were and which block was sent and so on. I found that one second opinion MD was close friends with my first MD (oncologists) so I felt that wasn't the most objective second opinion. Therefore I sent it to a third hospital to an oncologist who didn't know the other two!

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories