[chrisy]

Hi Margiermc,

Your story sounds a lot like mine...although it took 2 years for my "cured" DCIS to be grow up to be extensive liver mets. Mine were discovered quite by accident - I also had minor stomach upset which led to ultrasounds and the scan which ultimately detected the liver mets. By that time, the tummy ache had long gone...but somehow I had gotten the strong signal to get it checked out.

I don't know how, or why the "DCIS" ended up where it did...and quite early on I decided it didn't matter to me since I couldn't change it anyway. Would I have felt better if my initial diagnosis had been Stage III then graduated to IV?

For whatever reason, it does happen - although rarely. I am also cautious in sharing my story with "early stagers" because of course I am their worst nightmare! I always stress that is is extremely rare...and also that it is still a subject of research to try and identify what factors cause DCIS to go bad...so they will be better able to ID who would benefit from more aggressive treatment.

For me, since I couldn't change the past, the only way to move was forward, as you are doing.

Very exciting you are in the vaccine trial at U of W. I came close to entering one of those but instead ended up in a different direction...but figuring out how to rally our OWN immune systems to fight this has got to be the answer..

Good luck, thanks for sharing and I mean that - it took me about 7 months of lurking before I posted anything!

Chris