Just Diagnosed - What does this report tell me?

hi Massgirl - so sorry for you. I was in your shoes just a couple months ago. Please read the DCIS info on bc.org. Of course your doctors are the experts, but from my experience here's what I would expect.

Your BS may talk to you about doing a lumpectomy of the DCIS and remove the surrounding tissue to rule out micro invasion/any invasive cancer. I did this in a hospital under general anesthesia and it was outpatient. It was really easy with almost no downtime or pain post surgically. My results were back in about 5 days.

After the pathology results are in, your BS will go over your options for treatment. DCIS is usually treated like invasive cancer because not enough is known about when/if it will infiltrate the duct. However, by definition - in situ means it has not spread beyond the duct. Pure DCIS is not treated with chemo. I believe the standard of care is typically lumpectomy, radiation and hormone therapy (since you're HR+) Radiation may not be recommended though. Depending on your family history and other factors you may opt, or the doctors may suggest, mastectomy although with a small tumor that's considered by some to be very aggressive/overkill treatment. You may want to consider getting a second opinion, especially if what your heart is telling you to do doesn't jive with what your BS is suggesting.

Your BS may have you meet with a genetic counselor, MO and RO. You may also talk to a nurse navigator to help you through this process. It's hard in the beginning - so much unknown. Once you decide what you're going to do about the DCIS and have things scheduled, it gets easier.

FWIW- I didn't see anything in your path report indicating cancer in the right breast but again, I'm no expert. Atypia, fibrosis, hyperplasia, etc (I believe) are benign conditions that may be considered red flags because they're sometimes found in conjunction with bc but not always. Actually fibrosis is just dense tissue, I believe. About 50% of women have dense breasts.

Massgirl, if this biopsy turns out to be the extent of it at 4mm DCIS I would say you are very lucky it was caught this early.

Very best luck to you.

MassGirl--you can look up ALH and DCIS. DCIS is considered a Stage 0 cancer.

MassGirl55, "the doctor called but I'm not clear what she was telling me - she was stumbling around trying to get the words out."

I would fire that doctor, pronto. You need one who can get the damn words out and explain EXACTLY what is going on.