Lumpectomy or mastectomy

That should say ‘can be seen on a mammogram’.

DCIS will usually be seen in mammogram as calcification or micro calcification.  I can understand how you feel as it is another hurdle but good that you have another appointment to sort things out.  Take care.

Hello VicMG , sorry to hear you are in this position, it is a blow but also great news that your lymph nodes are clear.

I also had to have a further op as my margins weren’t clear on 3 sides. My surgeon felt he could ‘reshape’ my breast with a lateral mammoplasty but we also discussed mastectomy. 
He said outcome in terms of risk was no different. 
Things are related to breast size too. 
I would ask what your breast will look like if you have a further lumpectomy, will any additional treatments be the same, if there is any impact on your risk of recurrence. 

Other consideration is recovery time - the second op I had was much tougher compared to the lumpectomy.

Pre cancerous sounds like DCIS but you should check. For me, they thought they had all the invasive tumours first time and were just going back for possible DCIS - in fact they also found a further invasive tumour.

Good luck with your decision xx

That happened to me but they said I didn't need a mastectomy, so I had a second operation where they took more tissue out, and after that it tested clear.  My lymph nodes were clear too.  I had radiotherapy, 6 sessions of EC chemotherapy, and herceptin injections.  But I only had 5 out of 8 injections as they caused heart failure.

8 years later the cancer came back in the same place.  So I've now had a mastectomy and 12 weekly sessions of paclitaxel chemotherapy.  Now I am hopefully having 18 herceptin injections. The chemotherapy was much harder than last time, and my mastectomy wound kept leaking and opening up, probably because I had previously had radiotherapy in that area.   I would definitely choose a mastectomy if I were you!

Good luck! xxx

Thankyou all for your responses. I very much appreciate hearing your stories. I’m going to go back to my BCN with more questions and see how I feel about making my decision. xx

I guess one way to look at it:

If you have a lumpectomy, you still have the option of a mastectomy later as even having a mastectomy doesn't guarantee that you can't get breast cancer in the future. 

ER+/PR+HER2- and lymph nodes clear means that you are unlikely to need chemo therapy and will have radiotherapy with a lumpectomy.  You can only have one set of radiotherapy on an area.  The fact that your nodes are clear is the best news you could possibly get.  

A lumpectomy is a much easier operation - I had 80mm removed and was operated on at 4.30pm, home by 7.30pm.  Driving 4 days later and back at work 2 days after the operation. (sit down desk job).

I am 7.5 years post operation and often forget about it altogether (54mm of mine was 2 separate areas of DCIS).  If I was missing a breast (despite the dent I have), I know I would be reminded every single day.  If I had been given the option I would have plumped for lumpectomy over and above a mastectomy, having read others stories. 

Definitely ask your BCN for pros and cons of each alternitves to give you a good idea of what each entails.

I was told that I would have a dent about 5 minutes before the operation.  I wasn't given the option of an implant to fill in the dent, so if they are suggesting the possibility of a mastectomy, I'm guessing it's because of a similar scenario, so ask about implants - I definitely wouldn't have wanted an operation to do this afterwards, so I was pretty annoyed about not being told at the time.  (it's filled into the dent a little now, but not amazingly well).

Kindest wishes, Lesley

I really appreciate you sharing your stories, guidance and support. I have decided to go for another lumpectomy. That feels like the right option for me right now. I really had no idea what to do and seemed stuck or on pause, empty inside and a bit depressed if I’m honest which I haven’t experienced as yet. I feel better now I have made this decision. 
Thank you everyone again for your help x

Just remember to put a monthly reminder in your calendar to check yourself, because I found my cancer that way both times.  It wasn't picked up by a mammogram.  Both times I found it before it got to the lymph nodes!

I wish you the very best of luck. xxx

I found mine by checking my breasts. Lost it for 2 weeks and found it again, I immediately rang the doctor and got the ball rolling as I just knew it would be cancer.
I’m 55 so no more periods. They used to be my reminder to check. Good idea putting a reminder on our calendars, especially when we can set it to alert us.

Can I ask what breast cancer you had and if it was the same type when it returned?

thank you again, you’ve been though a lot and I wish you all the very best of luck too xxxxx

Hi. I had this. I had dcis with multifocal cells. I had 3 goes at getting the 2cm clear margin. In my 2nd op there was only a .5mm clearance. Because it needed to be 2cm i was told my surgeon would try one more time or i could have a mastectomy. I decided to try once more. I told him to take more than he normally would as I’d rather have a smaller boob than none at all. He said ok. My results this time were that there was no sign of the cancer or cells in the bit taken. I would have been ok with the 2nd op but we wouldn’t have known that. I’m glad i tried the 3rd time instead of having the mastectomy.