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Diagnosed with DCIS: How do I decide on treatment?
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Mar 20 10:00am | Replies (345)Comment receiving replies
Well, that seems a bit extreme. However, we all have our own journey to follow, and our instincts may lead us in the right direction. I had DCIS in situ which was 0 also. And a 4mm tumor, clean margins. I had sentinel lymph node surgery - tiny scar - to check for cancer there. It was clean also. Six months on everything has healed nicely and I'm not taking anything. Tried the Arimidex pill for a short time and decided against it. The radiologist wanted me to do 10 days of radiation - I decided against that too. My opinion now for what it's worth is, if the cancer comes back, I have the option of having surgery again, which wasn't too bad, and/or radiation. But, if I had the radiation now, I cannot have it again in the same breast. I would then have to have a mastectomy. Blessings to you!
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@heydon2023 your words are spot on for what I did 18 yrs ago. I had DCIS and had lumpectomy. Clean margins. I did take tamoxifen for 3 1/2 yrs. Actually mine ‘spot’ was so small the biopsy got all the cancer cells (unbeknownst at the time). When surgery was done the tissue had no cancer cells. I did talk to a radiation doctor (radiologist?) and he said treatment 5 days/ week for 7 weeks. When I said he was treating me like I had cancer & theoretically I did not have any cancer left, he just said “that’s the protocol “. I asked him if I was his wife would he have me do radiation. He said that wasn’t a fair question. I think it was. I researched every study and info I could. Went for a second opinion. He mentioned some studies and research I had read and said , I don’t believe you need radiation. If you were my wife (didn’t even have to ask) I wouldn’t have you do radiation. Didn’t do radiation.
No one back then had told me about not being able to radiate the same breast and you still do not hear about that very much. I just mentioned that to my oncologist and he told me that it isn’t true, they can radiate the same breast with different techniques or something. I’m going to ask again and learn more.
Blessings to you We must be Proactive in our own health. Stay strong.