Can Anyone Help?

Hi ColleenS80,

I'm the same age as you and went through a very similar experience in finding out that the thickness I'd noticed in my breast for more than two years was cancerous. In the last month, I had my biopsy and mastectomy soon after. As soon as I knew the biopsy results, I was like, please cut my breast off as soon as possible, I don't want these cancerous cells in my body!

I had my first mammogram ever just before the biopsy and it was painful for me.

It is so awful to wait and frustrating that the information comes in pieces. Now I'm waiting on the results of the OncotypeDX.

What helped me is holding on to whatever positive information I was hearing or my mind quickly went to dark places. This is so frightening and we don't expect to go through this in our 30s.

So far your nodes seem clear. That's great! Try not to worry about being at an advanced stage just yet.

Hi ColleenS80, no, I didn't have any positive nodes which was a huge relief. I didn't know that definitively until after surgery. I'm a bit perplexed by my final pathology report actually - it puts me at stage IIb because the pathologist estimated the IDC to be 5-7cm - which is really big to have no positive nodes. The 5-7cm isn't a solid mass though, but scattered points of IDC. I had a mastectomy because of the extent of the DCIS/IDC, and the alternative would have been chemo upfront to shrink everything, followed by a lumpectomy. I'm hoping to avoid chemo but that will depend on the results of the Oncotype for me.

My understanding is that lumpectomy followed by radiation is just as effective as a mastectomy, if the size of the tumor is small enough for a lumpectomy. The rate of recurrence is the same with both.

Colleen, thinking of you today as you go in for your biopsy....Will be in the "virtual waiting room" here to hear how things went.

HUGS!!!!

Colleen and Raisin - it's always the waiting that's the absolute worst. Easy to tell you to try to concentrate on other things but we all know how difficult that is. Just don't listen to Drs. Bing and Google. Everyone is different and they are very generic. The only thing that got me through those first few weeks was good old Xanax. I took that for about two months and even though I was scared $$#@less, it did take the edge off the anxiety and the panic attacks. So if you need something, don't hesitate to ask for it. After my surgery, they switched me to Zoloft because it's less habit-forming than Xanax. I said at 70, who cares? Whatever it takes is fine with me.

Hang in there, both of you, and breathe. We are here for you. Sending lots of warm hugs and prayers

Mine was just under 1cm. Dense breast tissue as well. I asked my radiologist during the biposy in 10/2016 "How scary is it...?" He responded "Pretty darn scary." Then, I drove home in tears from what was supposed to be a routine yearly mammogram. I get what you are feeling. It's just soooooo shocking. The waiting is the very worst! Once you get those results, and I do hope your news is benign, the biology of the tumor will indicate what type of treatment is prescribed. I was and still am so surprised that there are so many different types of BC. Mine is triple positive. You can see from my stats what my treatment was, even for a small stage 1 cancer. I had a lumpectomy, and then THREW EVERYTHING at it. Everyone is different. Every cancer is different.

You will get plenty of good advice here. I lurked for the entire time of my treatment and am just now starting to post. Hang in there, girl. Lots of support here.

I was where you are now two months ago and my heart goes out to you. Its crazy making when you are not getting the right info. What helped me was getting second opinions because I found a hospital where they moved fast and disclosed everything to me and I felt taken care of. My anxiety has gone down so much now that I feel that I am being taken care of by people who know what they are doing even though I have a grade 3 tumor and its triple negative.

I hope you don't have cancer and even if you do with the small size and no lymph nodes you should be very much treatable.

Hugs

I'm so sorry to hear about your nodes!

I also had unexpected changes along the way. My biopsy pathology report said that the IDC was 2mm. My final report after mastectomy said 5-7cm - a huge difference! Additionally, my biopsy pathology said Grade 1 and my final pathology said Grade 3. My heart fell out of my chest when I saw the final report. (Meanwhile, my BS was saying the report looked good and she thought it would be worse!)

During my biopsy the doctor kept saying, "You'll be OK," until I asked, "What does that mean?" He didn't have an answer.

I keep telling myself: breast cancer is not a death sentence. Many women have faced worse than me and are longterm survivors. I am still alive. I will do what I can to fight this, whether that means chemo, changing my lifestyle, or seeking out help to deal with my anxiety.

Wishing you the best!!!

Hang in there. It is a very scary time while you are waiting for news. My 1.2 cm tumor was found through US. Biopsy positive for cancer. Two weeks later, I had a breast MRI and found another 1.2 cm tumor in the same breast. I was very thankful for the MRI because that cancer didnt show on my original US. After the MRI I had to have another ultrasound and biopsy. It was difficult to locate on the US but they were determined. I also had a PET/CT scan which showed only the 2 cancers abd no spread. Now I'm waiting for a mastectomy and node dissection. At this point I'm more worried about the node dissection and those results then I am about the bilateral mastectomy. Waiting is very scary. This forum is great for support and to obtain information.

Hoping you have results soon. Your surgeon may be the one to order MRI. If you choose lumpectomy, they will do MRI first. If you choose bilateral mastectomy, they may not do MRI. Partly, it depends on pathology. Lots of things to consider. Hoping when the radiologist calls, you can get on the path to what's next

Grade 1......yes, that is good news.

Kicks some serious ass, sista. You got this. ;-)

>>The rate of recurrence is the same with both.<<

For the universe of all early stage breast cancers -- of whatever types, and whatever ages the patients, overall survival (survival -- with or without apparent breast cancer -- to certain time interval/s) is about the same.

Here is something else about the universe of breast cancer patients in those big-number statistics.

https://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/GettingOlder.html

Local recurrence risk is lower with mastectomy.

"There is a somewhat higher risk of developing a local recurrence of the cancer after lumpectomy than after mastectomy. However, local recurrence can be treated successfully with mastectomy." Source: http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/surgery/mast_vs_lump

This might matter to you.

http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/best-surgery-for-early-stage-may-depend-on-age

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Sep 1, 2017 01:20PM - edited Sep 1, 2017 01:31PM by Icietla

Another ILC-er here. By my calculations, the little-to-no-statistical-difference-in-outcomes so often used to argue against our mastectomy and CPM choices is roughly 93% weighted by IDC and DCIS cases. Somebody tell me if I am wrong about that, huh?

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"Bilateral involvement is reported to be 20–29% in lobular carcinoma [10, 12, 16, 41, 42]. In our dataset the incidence of contralateral breast cancer in women with ILC was nearly double that in women with IDC." Source: https://breast-cancer-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/bcr767