"Invasive" sounds scary, but it isn't necessarily. An "invasive" ductal carcinoma in my case means that it breached the milk duct, as opposed to a DCIS, which is still contained within the milk duct. "Invasive" did not mean that the cancer went everywhere. It didn't get to the sentinel lymph node. It turned up on my annual mammogram. Otherwise I had zero symptoms and zero risk factors: lifestyle, genetic, or family history. It was not there last year and was caught early. Stage 1A. HR+. 12 mm.