I have asked myself that question too. In the end I am very happy I treated it. I feel better than I have ever felt in my entire adult life. I felt sick for many years prior to diagnosis, with no clear explanation. Lots of fatigue involved, diffuse pain, terrible headaches/migrenes. All gone, I am another person. I become convinced the first mutated cell appeared during puberty (when breast tissue develops) and it went from there. My cancer was slow growing so this is definitively a possibility.

Grade 3 means it is a faster-growing cancer that's more likely to spread. Why would you want to ignore that?

If you don't have a good support system from family or close friends, you might consider working with a counselor to discuss some of your concerns about treatment. An objective outsider, someone whose life isn't feeling turned upside down, might be able to help you pinpoint your concerns and how to deal with them effectively, and how to make good treatment decisions for yourself. If your family isn't able to help support you, this could be especially important. I wish you good luck.

Eigna - Ignorance can be bliss, but we don't have the power to go back in time. For now you can't feel the lump, so perhaps you could "forget" it for the time being. But what if in a month you could? How would you feel? Would you want it out then? Have you asked your dr to help you feel for it? Maybe if it can be felt by a doc and they could help you feel it, maybe it would seem more real and more urgent? Just a thought.

My cancer wasn't able to be felt, even though it was a golf ball size, so not all cancers can be felt. Maybe that's the case with yours too.

Have you talked to your team about what they think your cancer would do in the next few months? How it would impact your life if no action is taken? What activities or hobbies or jobs this may keep you from enjoying in a matter of months, maybe if you're lucky a few years? Do you have a family, if so, have you asked them their thoughts? If it were my mom or sister, I would hope she would discuss her choice with me if she decided to opt out of surgery and treatment. Just my opinion.

You asked, what would happen if you didn't have surgery.....well, it would grow. Slowly or quickly. It might stay there in your breast forever. It might not. If it spreads, breast cancer goes to the bones, brain, and liver most often, but it can go anywhere there is blood to feed it. And it will 100% effect how long you live, maybe by many years, maybe by only a few. Only your cancer knows.

Patients' Refusal of Surgery Strongly Impairs Breast Cancer Survival

"Most women who refused surgery did not receive any therapy at all. There are only very few studies available on the natural history of breast cancer, ie, the outcome of breast cancer without therapy. Bloom et al studied a series of 250 women with untreated breast cancer (diagnosed between 1805 and 1933) and found particularly poor survival rates: 18% at 5 years and 3.6% at 10 years.8 Several groups studied the effect of omitting surgery, but using radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and tamoxifen, alone or in combination, on survival of patients with operable breast cancer."

"Surgery represents the central component of curative breast cancer treatment, but some women decide not to undergo surgery. Recent studies on the prognosis of non operated breast cancer are nonexistent. This study included all 5339 patients aged < 80 years with nonmetastatic breast cancer recorded at the Geneva Cancer Registry between 1975 and 2000. We consulted the clinical files of all nonoperated women to identify those who refused surgery. Patients who refused surgery were compared with those accepting surgery using logistic regression. The effect of refusal of surgery on breast cancer mortality was evaluated by Cox proportional hazards analysis. Seventy patients (1.3%) refused surgery. These women were older, more frequently single, and had larger tumors. Overall, 37 (53%) women had no treatment, 25 (36%) hormone-therapy alone, and 8 (11%) other adjuvant treatments alone or in combination. Five-year specific breast cancer survival of women who refused surgery was lower than that of those who accepted (72%, 95% confidence interval, 60%-84% versus 87%, 95% confidence interval, 86%-88%, respectively). After accounting for other prognostic factors including tumor characteristics and stage, women who refused surgery had a 2.1-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.5-3.1) increased risk to die of breast cancer compared with operated women. Women who refuse surgery for breast cancer have a strongly impaired survival. This information might help patients who are hesitant toward surgery make a better informed decision."

I'm not trying to scare you away from a possible choice, but yes, this should sound scary. It is scary. It's cancer. That being said, I'm just asking you questions that maybe you haven't thought about yet. And while I'm not advocating for this choice, I respect it's your body and your life. I do think that before you decide whether or not to not take action, it's important to have all the facts laid out and list the pros and cons.

Everyones journey and choices are different, I completely respect that. I have multiple illnesses, MS being the most recent addition as of last week so I TOTALLY get wanting to pretend that nothing is wrong and try to carry on. I get it. However, for me it was never an option to wait and see what the cancer would do. I wanted it out. Even though my life is very physically painful, I found I still very much wanted to live.

I hope you will look into all facets of what it would mean to not go forward with the removal and treatment of your cancer. While it may be local for the moment, once it spreads, it spreads. We can't put it back into the tumor once it's out there. At that point it's only "treat in order to manage". And, there's no one that can say it (the cancer cells) haven't spread beyond the tumor into the blood stream at this point. It's all a battle of the odds.

Wishing you knowledge, comfort, and peace in your decision making.

You can look on the bright side that you've actually caught it early as oppose to ignoring it and dying young. Don't be angry you have alot to be grateful for. Ive tried to explain to my close friends that I'm not sure wether to say that this year has been a really bad year for me because I was diagnosed with cancer? or weather to say this year has been a really good year for me because I've caught it early before it could spread? I choose to say I've had a good year.... Not sure if I'm making any sense but I hope its offered you a different perspective?

Best of luck

The people who argued for mammograms starting at 50 pointed out that some tumors might not cause a serious problem if found later. These would typically be ER+PR+ Her2- tumors in older, postmenopausal women. I don’t think they meant a grade three PR negative tumor in a 40-year old.

What is scaring you the most about treating it? You can say it here.

My aunt had a lot of pain in her shoulders and back. Her idiot doctor told her it was bursitis for the longest time. Turns out it was bone mets from an undiscovered and untreated breast cancer. She tried chemo but it wasn't really effective as advanced as it was. So she wound up living on morphine for about a year until she died.

I hate having to use her as an example to scare someone into treatment. I loved her, and her life was so much more than its crappy, painful ending.

Eigna, this sounds like denial. And it's okay. But you know very well what would likely happen if you ignored it and pretended it wasn't there.

I promise you, you are in the worst part of this right now. The beginning. It sucks. It sucks so bad. You're terrified, you know practically nothing, there is no plan of action. You're waiting, and waiting, and waiting, waiting. Every time the phone rings, you freak.

I promise you, this gets better. You'll have surgery, the tumor will be studied and you have answers! And then once you have answers you'll have a plan of attack and some control. You will feel infinitely better.

Belinda: I had them put me out for the colonosopy! I am a colonoscopy chicken!

The worst thing about a colonoscopy is the prep! Once you go under it's a piece of cake.

I have a friend who had a similar diagnosis but it was not grade 3. She had a lumpectomy, then radiation and then got on with her life. She takes Tamoxifen and feels very little side effects. She gave up alcohol and changed her diet to more vegetables, less meat. Thats it, 5 years out and she is fine. She doesn't even worry about BC.

contrast that with my diagnosis where I had to go the whole 10 yards and have treatment side effects to this day.Hopefully your situation is like my friends. You could also take more action. Search nutritionfacts.org for Breast Cancer. There are a few things you could start doing today that would be helpful before surgery ( Broccoli Sprouts, maybe flax and cooked mushrooms, Even try ( low methionine) Vegan Keto as it might slow down the growth of that tumor until your surgery.

This doesn't answer your question and it is a good one. Its likely you caught the tumor at the tiniest size and can get it out and move on with your life. Then look for ways to mitigate BC going forward.

Glad you are going to get a treatment in place. That's the first major step forward. Good luck.

Hugs (((((Eigna))))))

hello if I had thought that way I wouldn't now be a 25yr Survivor. Praise God I was diagnosed while preparing our 2nd marriages I never thought to not do anything I thought bout lumpectomy then decided on mastectomy. So glad I did. You have better chance I believe getting the cancer removed msphil idc stage2 0/3 nodes 3mo chemo before and after Lmast got married then rads 7wks and 5yrs on Tamoxifen.

Eigna, your fear will subside with time. It really helps getting tumor removed. It took about 2 months after my diagnosis to put the cancer on the back burner so to speak.