No treatment beyond surgery

[skeetur]

Anyone else have no treatment recommended beyond surgery?

I had a good amount of DCIS with a tiny bit of IDC (2 foci largest of which was .3 cm which was ER+/PR+/HER2+). Had lumpectomy w/ SNB (negative) which found and removed the IDC but no clear margins on the DCIS. Re-excision lumpectomy again yielded no clear margins on the DCIS. And finally told that mastectomy would be best. I opted for bilateral mastectomies. Margins on mastectomies were fine so no rads.

Oncologist isn't recommending any chemo due to really tiny tumor size. He isn't recommending hormone therapy since the cancer was node negative and both breasts were removed. He isn't recommending Oncotype testing because there may not even be enough tissue to test due to tiny tumor size. He is contacting Hopkins to get an informal second opinion for me. If opinion is different, he wants me to go consult with Hopkins. He said I can always go get a second opinion there or elsewhere if I wanted whether their opinion agrees or not.

Anyone similar?

Kathy

[Montana]

If it was me, I would get my own second opinion regarding no further treatment.

[AlaskaAngel]

Hello Kathy,

Just wondering what your age at dx was, and if you have had any markers done (CA 15-3 or CA 27.29) what the result was?

AlaskaAngel

[skeetur]

Hey Angel!

I was/am 46. My doc doesn't do markers.

Thanks,
Kathy

[AlaskaAngel]

Kathy, I think your doc is conscientious in getting an informal second opinion from a major cancer center, but it would be worthwhile for you to be able to ask your own questions by getting a direct second opinion -- and because of being HER2, I'd want to get the opinion at a major cancer center.

I did an informal poll on another website at one point and found that around half of those with IDC also had DCIS. Yet most resources generally outline therapy in terms of having just one or the other, IDC or DCIS.

Because HR+ women at high risk for bc who have never even had bc are at least being offered the choice to consider of hormonal therapy, I think you should also be at least given that option to consider. Please do let us know how this goes for you.

A.A.

[MJo]

I also am glad your doc is consulting with Hopkins. If they suggest aggressive treatment, I hope you will seriously consider. I had a .5 cm tumor with no lymph nodes. I took the oncotype and it predicted chance of recurrence at 22.5% over 10 years. That was too high a risk for me so I took the full treatment -- chemo, radiation, herceptin and arimidex, since I'm er/pr pos. Jean's tumor was smaller than mine - about your size - and the oncotyped her risk of recurrence as higher than mine. So Her2 is a tricky, nasty little risk factor. Be cautious.

[LittleLegos]

I had a very small tumor .6cm IDC. Three med onc recommended chemo, mainly because I'm 34 yrs old. If I were 80, they would reconsider.

It was recommended that I do AC-TH or TCH or TH. I choose Taxol and Herceptin. It gives me the benefit of Herceptin with a little boost from the Taxol. It's quite manageable too. I'll do rads because I did a partial mast.

Good luck! These decisions are not easy.