I had a mastectomy yesterday due to 10cm area of microcalcification, and a 7mm tumour of grade 2 DCIS. They tested 3 sentinel lymph nodes, and 2 of them came back positive. I'm confused about it all now and am waiting for staging CT scan. Has anyone got any experience of this? Does it mean I have an invasive cancer? I will speak to my breast care nurses later, but this all seems so important at 4am
- a warm welcome, but sorry that you are here with us. I have just read this thread and I see you've been directed to more information from LexiT7 and I thought I'd add a little more.
DCIS is non invasive cancer and invasive cancer is where the cells have broken out of the ducts and spread to surrounding tissue. Having tested 3 sentinel lymph nodes and 2 of them having come back positive then yes, it is invasive cancer but please don't think that 'all is lost!'. The lymphatic system is there as a PROTECTOR of your body by 'catching' the cancer in them and it is in 2 out of the 3, rather than all 3.
They will want to do a CT scan and this is normal. Sometimes DCIS can stay dormant and may become nothing - not sure many people would want to take that gamble..... but sometimes it does become invasive cancer. In some instances (like mine), the DCIS can be completely different from the invasive cancer. I had 2 areas totalling 54mm of DCIS grade 3 ER-PR- and then a tumour of 15mm grade 2 Invasive ductal carcinoma ER+ PR+. Mine hadn't spread to the lymph nodes, so I didn't need chemotherapy.
So, they will be finding out what type of cancer you have in your lymph nodes and confirming your DCIS and other findings. They may well want to remove all your lymph nodes and I strongly suspect you will be offered chemotherapy (depending on your age - my friend's Mother was 80 at diagnosis with spread to lymph nodes and although fit, they obviously felt that the negatives of chemo outweighed the benefits) but you won't know their plan for you until the pathology comes back with your results which may be a couple of weeks. Hold onto the fact that only 2 of the 3 lymph nodes were positive and hopefully no more will come back positive, in which case it could still be pretty early stages and you've caught it in plenty of time.
Be kind to yourself and focus on the now. A mastectomy is a big operation and you need to come to terms with all that you have been through and recover your health. The waiting for the results will be a very difficult time (everyone says this - the waiting is the hardest part - once you know what you're dealing with it becomes a lot easier). It seems to be that our imaginations run wild and we always think the worst. One thing that really helped me was something I heard: Imagine the worst and imagine the best outcomes. Then settle your mind on the middle ground and you never know it could actually end up being the best scenario! The treatments for breast cancer are progressing so quickly and advances are constantly being made. I was diagnosed in 2017 and within a year, new treatments were being offered which weren't available to me.
Keep posting on this site with any questions you have or just chatting to keep your spirits up! There is an AWAKE thread where other ladies struggle to sleep and keep each other going during the night, but most of all you'll find many, many ladies who've been where you are and have got to the other side and able to offer support and a great deal of knowledge.
Kindest wishes,
