Microcalcifications on mammogram 6 months after BC

Hi,

I had treatment for IDC last year, grade 2, er 8/8 pr4/8 her2 negative. Stage 3a. Tumour was 1.7cm.

I had lumpectomy with full axillary clearance, 8 rounds of chemotherapy, proton beam radiotherapy (15 sessions) which finished at the end of February 2025. I’m now on zoladex, exemestene and abemaciclib.

I had my first annual screening mammogram recently and got recalled (queue full spiral). They’ve seen an area of Microcalcifications on the mammogram which looks like it could be branching (2cm total). I’ve had 2 ultrasounds done and neither have found any suspicious masses, just post treatment changes including fat necrosis and simple cysts, I also have dense breasts. I then had further mammograms and biopsies taken (8 in total). They told me they’ve graded their suspicion as grade 3 (M3) (basically unsure from what I’m told).

I’m panicking so much that this is a local recurrence so soon after finishing treatment 6 months ago. I’ve had such extensive treatment and am diligent with the tablets never missing a dose.

How could this be happening so soon? Surely if this is DCIS recurrence this means that all the treatments I’ve done have failed?! And how is that possible for a grade 2 hormone receptor positive cancer 6 months after active treatment?
How often do these things turn out to be benign? I was so hoping they would tell me it’s just fat necrosis or scarring but the branching has terrified me.

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Fingers crossed for you. M3 sounds a bit middling so could go either way and I can only imagine that, after all the surgery and radiotherapy our poor boobs go through, it must look somewhat different and complicated after compared to prior mammograms. Hopefully, it comes back as ok. Even if its not, its such a short time frame that it should be very early and treatable, so there are reasons to be optimistic - not that anyone would want to go through treatment again so soon and I hope that doesn’t happen for you. As you may have found, they drop strong hints when they are more certain, but not in this case, so there is a chance you could be fine.