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Anyone dealing with Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia (ADH)?
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Sep 11 9:29pm | Replies (227)Comment receiving replies
My Mom who is 83 years old was diagnosed with ADH last week after two mammograms and a stereotactic biopsy. Her doctor recommended a follow up excision surgery to remove the tissues surrounding the biopsy site on her left breast. But my Mom doesn’t want to go through the excision. The doctor then recommended a follow up mammogram in 6 months. Considering her age, is my mom making the right decision? She is pretty healthy otherwise, no other health issues. She can handle the Excision surgery easily. How do I convince her to do the excision surgery to rid of ADH tissues or to rule out cancer now?
Replies to "My Mom who is 83 years old was diagnosed with ADH last week after two mammograms..."
Hi jzcareformom. At 83 I can understand your mom’s concern about having surgery. It is not something to take lightly at any age, but for someone who is up in age I can understand the need for weighing the risk/benefits. It is a surgery with anesthesia and a breathing tube (and a pre-op surgical check-up and all the rest that went w/ it) and for me, at 59, I didn’t particularly find it to be a walk in the park. Her diagnostic mammogram findings should state the size of the microcalcificaitons and when she goes back for her 6 month follow-up (which she should definitely do), then they can do a comparison which might help her to come to a decision on going forward w/ the excisional biopsy. Making these decisions is difficult and lots of people (doctors included) will tell you what you should do - I know from personal experience how debilitating it all can be if you question your own judgement. Good luck to your mom and to you...
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Hello jzcareformom - Sorry to hear about your Mom going through this at 83. The common treatment is to biopsy as she has done (Which is actually, I think, more painful and difficult than the excision of the extra tissue....but that was me). Then they follow up to remove the extra surrounding tissue to remove anything suspicious in the immediate area to make sure they got al the potential cancer producing cells.
If they have come to this point in the process they must feel it's a good idea to follow through on the excision surgery but if she hasn't had any issues up to this point it may be that we all get some ADH or ALH by her age.
The second surgery is pretty easy and if she can tolerate it they can see how much there is and whether there is cause for concern. Knowing about it early would be helpful because if it is or has the potential to become cancer the excision would be less invasive than treating breast cancer that has become invasive.
Can you share more of why she doesn't want to do the second surgical excision? And how concerned are her doctors about the potential for her to get invasive breast cancer at this age?
Hugs and good luck.