Hi, my mum has just been diagnosed with this, we are just waiting for confirmation of treatment, but one of the options ma be to do nothing, because apparently it can’t spread..?
Is there anyone on here who has this type of cancer?
I had DCIS in LHS and invasive in the RHS. The DCIS was whipped out very straightforwardly at the same time as the mastectomy on the RHS and I now have a barely noticeable scar around top of nipple LHS along with a bit of a dint that will be lipo-filled later this year…you can only see if you look very closely. On the LHS I had a WLE (wide local excision) which involved putting some wire in the boob to mark the spot but was a very straight forward op with no pain/discomfort afterwards for me…the mastectomy was somewhat uncomfortable afterwards in comparison.
And yep you’re correct, the in situ part means its not a spreader, unlike the invasive one…my invasive spread to lymph nodes but was still very manageable.
I've had 3 operations for my. DCIS it was 5cm, only 2cm showed on mamogram. I had no lump the calculations showed up on my routine mamogram
You need clear margins to show it hasn't invased (spread)
My DCIS on one side has no clear margins so the 3rd operation was an aggressive scrape of the area to see if we can get a clear margin. Results in 10 days
Have a read of DCIS on this website, take a pen and notepad in so you can take notes
I hope all goes well with your mam and her results, it is very treatable
I had DCIS 3 years ago and had treatment. There are 3 levels of DCIS - low, intermediate and high risk and this is ascertained from the sample taken at the biopsy. When I had it I was told if it was low risk they didn't treat as such but kept an eye on it with six monthly mammograms - and they were also introducing a new pilot scheme at the time regarding low risk DCIS. If it's intermediate or high risk DCIS from what I remember being told was more likely to develop and break out of the ducts and develop further. Please note this was my non-expert take on what I was told at the time.... although that was 3 years ago and treatment moves on. What's encouraging about DCIS is, whatever grade, it is still in the ducts and isn't an invasive cancer, yet. Whether it can turn into an invasive and how quickly is a very good question. The size of the area is also important re treatment.
Mine was high grade DCIS and was 5cm (50mm) in length, which made me not only at high risk of development but the area was large. Because of grade, I had to have surgery to get rid of it and due to the size of the area affected a lumpectomy would not have worked, and consequently I had to have a mastectomy (I had immediate reconstruction by DIEP in the same op - complicated but amazing surgery - not sure they are offering this at the moment or not due to Covid).
When I was having my biopsy the doctor said that I was extremely lucky as the cancer had been found in its infancy. I might add I didn't feel so at the time but looking back he was right...... I hope this helps a little. It's a stressful time especially waiting for confirmation of treatment and biopsy results as you always fear the worst. Good luck to your mum.Xxxx
Good to hear your story, Moresleep. My lump is 40mm and I am waiting for a mastectomy together with a biopsy right now. They say it should be done within 6 weeks, so I hope so.
Hi Molly, treatment of DCIS depends on age of diagnosis and grade which you don’t mention so hard to say, as others have said a high grade in a younger woman will usually be removed as it was with me, I know of older women with low grade where it isn’t, happy to help more if you have more info x
