Misdiagnosed DCIS

Diagnosed with breast cancer Recently diagnosed with breast cancer
1

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well. My wife was diagnosed with DCIS in May and had a single mastectomy three weeks ago. They were sure the pre-cancerous cells were contained within the milk ducts.

However, biopsies taken doting the operation found a 16mm tumour in the removed breast and cancerous spread to 3 of 8 lymph nodes removed by the surgeon.

It wax a real shock to be told at our post-op appointment last week that they now consider the cancer to be Stage 3. It has tested positive for the HER2 protein which I believe makes it more aggressive.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who knows more than me or who has had a similar experience. They keep telling us what a surprise it was for them and how they are shocked by the diagnosis, but that’s not particularly helpful. From stage 0 to stage 3 was a pretty brutal shock.

Many thanks for any advice.

2

Doe she also have estrogen and progesterone? Truly, because of herceptin, triple positive tumors have a great diagnosis. Even just HER+ ones, too. Immunotherapy has been a game changer for them. So in saying that I want to reiterate to not give up hope! So much more goes into prognosis than simply lymph node involvement. There’s size of tumor (your wife’s would be considered small), whether it is hormone positive and what hormones it is positive for, grade, etc. I know you and your wife are devastated and scared and my heart goes out to you. Ever single one of us here knows that feeling. But we also know that no matter what you end up getting your head around it and just moving on. And with that comes relief. Many hugs your way…