Repeat lumpectomy? And treatment decisions. Need advice

Thank you for your input . I appreciate it.

Hi! Jaynep & my comrades in fighting the war with cancers:

I just had my surgery to remove that mass of Breast Cancer on 12/26. Just read the post surgery Pathology report of mine from the portal of the hospital as following:

"Invasive ductal carcinoma, intermediate histologic grade, measuring 40 mm in
greatest dimension.
Carcinoma extends to posterior margin focally (2 mm front).

Margin Status for Invasive Carcinoma: Invasive carcinoma present at margin
Margin(s) Involved by Invasive Carcinoma: Posterior
(block 3G), focal (2 mm front)"

This seems like I did not get "clear" margins, right? 2nd surgery shall be the next step? ? Due to the holiday season, I am hesitating to contact my oncological surgeon. I was hoping to get a clear margins to opt-out of the rediation treatments, for I am 71+ and don't want to deal with any side effects of rediation treatments. Any experienced advice is highly appreciated!

Wishing you all a very healthy and blessed Year 2024! God bless you all!

I have DCIS low-intermediate grade. 2 lumpectomy surgeries didn’t get clear margins. Refused radiation and tamoxifen. After the second surgery she didn’t offer radiation because I didn’t have clear margins.

I had a sonocine ultrasound 6 months after surgery. No cancer I didn’t want to get a mammogram. Asked doctor if I could have an Ultrasound only she said No so I paid for the
Sonocine out of pocket.

I had a second opinion and that surgeon said she would do ultrasound only because I have calcifications and that’s what you see on mammogram.

Considering Thermography in 6 months but it’s only 80 percent accurate. I will continue to do Sonocine ultrasound yearly

Mind if I ask how much is the sonocine out of pocket? Thanks for sharing .

$495 first time visit
$595 is the price

The reason why I chose sonocine ultrasound takes 400 images of both breast and armpits. Most doctors do less images and they don’t include the other breast.

Will consider it. Thank you.

Getting clean margins is more difficult than one would think as there could be microscopic cells left behind that only a pathologist can see under a microscope.

It is not uncommon to go back and remove the remaining edge (including the DCIS).

You will be okay. Just hard to go through another surgery. ♥️

Don't you have a follow-up visit with your surgeon? I had one automatically scheduled for ten days after surgery. Surgery site was examined and it was at that visit I was informed that they didn't get clear margins and proceeded to schedule a second surgery.

I did and saw a PA. The PA has no idea about the Pathology result and she even told me “ I am waiting for Dr. A to tell me what does it means”. Appt. done and nothing really happened. 2 days after I called again to follow up and spoke with my surgeon and he said the pathologist hasn’t called him to clarify the result. ( pending final result) I called the hospital and asked help with the patient advocate. She was able to get the Pathologist call my Surgeon. Then my surgeon called me back and told me that I needed one. Since it was the holiday, I have been waiting .

Hi! @dlmdinia:

Thanks for replying and sharing your experience with us:) Your insight is highly appreciated!

Yes, I have a scheduled follow-up visit tomorrow (1/3/2024) with my surgeon; however, on 12/29/23 when I read the Surgical Pathology report of mine from the hospital, I realized that we did not get clear margins thus caused me to ponder upon what shall be the next step... May I ask how did your surgeon examine the surgery site for you on your follow-up visit to determine for a second surgery? I thought the surgical pathology report shows all the details about whether the surgery took out all the Invasive Carcinoma, but I might be wrong,..

Thanks again for sharing your experience, for I need it!