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My onc is also of the opinion that scans should be done if there is a symptom.There is a variety of reasons for this. I haven't gone to the sight listed above but I have read the Dr. Love breast book which sited many of the reasons to wait for symptoms and I assume they are the same.One problem with scans is as your Dr. said about the false positves but also many scans can not detect cancer until it has reached a certain size.You could have a scan on monday and if there aren't enough cells to detect it would be negative and in a few days or weeks it could be detectable, with this in mind we would be scanning everyone every day. It would be nice if a test could be developed to detect individual cancer cells.Also even if it is picked up before symptoms are present the overall survival remains the same.
Metastatic spread to other tissues tends to be symtomatic (ie:bone pain,elevated liver values etc.)as compaired to primary breast tumor which can go unnticed for long periods of time.
Some of your description of the pathology is confusing.If there is any node involvement there should be some invasive carcinoma not only DCIS.I could have read it wrong.Also they should be able to be more specific about the grade not just that it could be high.It might help if you can get them to be more specific.
I know it is scarry to go without scans but I am comfortable with the explanations as to why. I also know that if I ask my Dr. for a scan she will ok it even if she doesn't feel it is necessary.
Good luck, It can all be so confusing, Alice
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