mass size

You won't know the actual size until it's out, usually. Scans are good, but the surgery to remove it will carry all the answers. Sometimes--actually often--what the initial size is according to scans is different from post-surgery.

Size often doesn't matter--it's the grade and hormone status of the tumor that matters, if it's moved into lymph nodes, etc. And even then that doesn't seem to matter as much as we would think. Surgery, tx, regular follow ups, lifestyle changes (if necessary) can be the real "saviors" for us.

It sounds small regardless. Take heart in that, and get it out, get whatever tx is recommended and remember it's temporary, and then you can move on.

Hugs

Claire in AZ

I know; I didn't know anyone with it (ILC) either. And my surgeon terrified me and my mom when he (rather mistakenly) told her that ILC was "extremely rare". Ha, I found out later that is is the second most common type of BC which for some reason relieved a lot of my terror. Rare sounded like "hard to treat" to me. I also found out that ILC is often less aggressive than IDC, further relieving some overwhelming fear in the beginning. Point is, don't always believe the first report from physicians, no matter who they are.

ILC is a bit of a different animal in that it tends to be more multi-focal and hide from mammograms. Those two reasons, coupled with my very dense breasts which already hide problems, led me to make the decision to get my BMX after radiation and chemo. I didn't trust mammos as I had several "clear" ones that didn't reveal the c. as it should have, because it was ILC, and I didn't want to worry about any more "misses". When I got my pathology report back post BMX there was some hyperplasia in the "good" breast, so I was glad I went forward with the surgery even though I miss having sensation in my breasts now.

Claire

Karen, the 3mm on the path report is most likely just the sample size they got on the core biopsy. Your final mass size will be determined after surgery, like Claire said. If you have a breast MRI prior to surgery, it will give a better idea of true size, and in some cases, even overstate the size.

And not to be an alarmist, but local recurrences are possible post-mastectomy (although the percentage is small), and surgery decision (lump or mx) has no bearing on whether a patient may later become metastatic.

Karen,I agree, it’s terribly overwhelming, and like you said, one has to make quick decisions with limited information.

I wish overall health would have more of an impact on being diagnosed or not, but it unfortunately doesn’t. I always tell people I’d be healthy as a horse if it wasn’t for the stupid cancer, which I am on my third go around with now.

I’m glad you found this site, too. I’ve always learned more from other patients than from the doctors.

Thank you, Karen. Good luck with surgery Monday, and please keep us posted on things.