Anyone had Atypical Lobular Hyperplasia in their pathology margins?

Posted by jennfer72 @jennfer72, 4 days ago

Hi! Grateful for this forum.

Just got my pathology from Lumpectomy back and it's mostly good news! All margins and nodes negative, total tumour ILC 1.4mm, ER+, PR-, HER2-. I am 52, perimenopausal.

What concerns me that in amongst the margins they noted ALH cells; specifically ductal invasion. From reading I understand these to be potentially pre-cancerous.

I will be proceeding with radiation and likely 5 years of AI/Tamoxifen, whichever they put me on. Meeting with surgeon for follow up on Tuesday but kind of freaking out that there are these baby cancer cells (wanna be cancer cells?) lurking in there! Wondering if anyone has had this experience and what your oncologist suggested. Will the radiation kill these buggers? Will radiation + hormone therapy do the trick? Will she go back in and get more margins for AHL or do I not have to worry about them?

I'm so bummed. I should be celebrating the excellent results and yet now I have a new worry... thanks in advance!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Breast Cancer Support Group.

Miriam, Volunteer Mentor | @mir123 | 1 day ago

I'm sorry you aren't able to experience pure relief at this point. These are good questions--and I hope you get full information from the oncologist. I think is a general issue in breast cancer treatment--can some of the cancer spread, or will it. Can you check back in this coming week and tell us how the appointment went? Just on a personal note, I don't enjoy uncertainty but feel better when I can work with my oncologist in a clear way. I hope your weekend has had some enjoyable moments, despite what you are going through.