Can anyone confirm that DCIS is pre cancerous? I had heard it is one of the ‘best’ to get as treatment usually very effective, is that right?
If pre-cancerous, do insurance companies pay out for critical illness etc?
Thanks
Irene
Hi Irene,
DCIS is often referred to as pre-cancerous. I think the most helpful statement i have seen re this type is:
“Sometimes called a pre-cancer and sometimes Stage 0 breast cancer, DCIS is a non-invasive lesion that is confined within the lining of the milk ducts of the breast that is more benign than a cancerous tumor in that it does not have the ability to invade other parts of the body.”
Unfortunately most insurance companies will not consider this type of bc for payouts!
dawnhc
Not to be too depressing, but when surgery is done for DCIS then some ‘invasive cancer’ may be found.
Lottie
My reason for asking was my sisters friend was about to ring me for a chat as she is in a dilema wether or not to have a mast or a 1/4 breast removal.
I didn’t have dcis myself and didn’t want to mislead her in anyway. Another friend showed me an article in a paper from 19th feb 09 saying most dcis mastectomies are uneccessary. I didn’t read it myself, was going to but left the paper at her house by mistake. Can anyone point towards this article?
I think the study you are referring to is covered in an article in the Guardian:
I think the study only involved 500 women, I would prefer to have much better statistics on spread of DCIS …
Lottie
Difficult - and value judgments are involved. I think the article you are referring to is the letter to the Times from doctors concerned over the fact that some DCIS never becomes invasive, while some does, but they don’t know which is which, so they treat all, resulting in some women being treated who do not actually need it. Once diagnosed then, women are in the invidious position of having to decide (if given the choice and some doctors seem to insist - how they can do that I don’t know - on surgery) in the face of only the possibility and not a certainty that what they have may one day, they can’t say in how many years, become invasive. How you react to that depends on you. Some women seem to think they would rather have surgery to rid themselves of anxiety about the possibility of future invasive cancer; other women are as horrified by surgery as they are by the cancer.
So in this case, with the possibility of quadrantectomy - it seems a good compromise first step if someone really does not want to lose their breast. It sometimes turns out that there are in fact invasive cancers present that did not show up on previous tests. It sometimes turns out that the margins are not clear and further surgery - and it may still be possible to conserve some of the breast - may be needed; at some point in this, it may come to mastectomy. But if you can face, and are fit enough, for the possibility of more than one op, then you can do it steps.
Hi Ladies
This is interesting.
I was diagnosed with Pagets at the time of my mastectomy. It was thought that there was some underlying ductal carcinoma. However, after the mastectomy, the histology report showed DCIS only.
However, 9 months on, and having had a breast reconstruction by a wonderful surgeon in Norwich, I am relieved that I did have the mastecomy. If I hadnt, I would be sat here now with a deformed breast and wondering if it had all gone.
For me, the mastectomy was the best thing.
I want to live, and I would rather not take any risks.
Lisa X