HI all,
sitting up much too late mulling over decisions that feel like they should be easier than they r turning out to be. Story so far - I had an inderminate result from biopsies taken following a screening mammogram in August. They found a large benign radial scar in my rt breast but recommended an excisional biopsy to rule out any hidden cancerous cells,which I had three weeks ago and got the results of a few days ago. Diagnosed with a small invasive (5mm) tubular Cancer with 4mm of surrounding DCIS. I understand that if you’re unlucky enough to get breast cancer then this is one of the better ones as it rarely spreads and has a low rate of reoccurrence and this is where I’m finding it difficult. Because my biopsies were benign they didn’t do a sentinel node biopsy during my surgery and have now offered me the option of having this done but breast surgeon thinks it highly unlikely that there will be any lymph node spread because the tumour is grade 1 and small. I have given this a lot of thought and think I can live with the very low risk of lymph node spread and not have the SNB. I saw the oncologist on Friday and what I am finding it harder to decide about is whether to have radiotherapy to prevent local reoccurrence. Tumour was ER+ and they got good margins surgically. Have been advised to take tamoxifen for 5 years and have been offered radiotherapy if I want it. Intellectually I feel like radiotherapy would be overkill in my situation but am scared that I will go on worrying indefinitely without having either an SNB or radiotherapy. I know tubular cancer is rare so not sure whether any of you can share your experiences with me but would be grateful,if anyone can share any thoughts. I know this is not nearly so hard as the decisions that many of u r facing and feel a bit of a fraud for finding it so hard xx
Hi Taggie ,one of the Community Champions Jobey68 had Tubular breast cancer -I will ask her to come and speak to you Difficult decisions for you to make and a very personal one .If you will find it hard to deal with the" what ifs " then maybe you need to consider either radiotherapy and /or sentinel node biopsy .
That sounds sensible Taggie.There are threads for ladies going through radiotherapy at the same time in the going through treatment section if you want some support when you start .
Yes normally takes a couple of weeks for planning appt then you usuallly start a couple of weeks after the planning appt .If you want to know anything about the process just ask .
Hi Taggie, I’m glad youve been able to come to a decision that you feel comfortable with, there is such an array of information out there and it starts to fry your brain after a while so best to try not to look too much!
The one thing you can guarantee from all of us here is first hand experience of our various diagnosis and treatments, you can’t beat talking to real people who have actually been through everything you read about on DR Google! Xx Jo
Taggie
I too have had tubular bc, it was grade 1, 17mm and no lymph node involvement, clear margins and er+. I had 20 sessions of radiotherapy and am on tamoxifen for the next 10 years. My consultant and oncologist both said to me that if you were going to have bc it was the better one to have as it it was it was very treatable with very good prognosis
To be honest I did not have any hesitation in have the rads, I was told it was belts and braces, so felt comfortable about it, the same is true with the tamoxifen, if this little pill keeps me safe then great.
Helena xx
That’s quick !!! Should be another couple of weeks after that before you start radiotherapy sessions ,you will have a little bit of time to get your head round it .