29
Jan

i need to know what kind of treatment i need


Answer:
Likely surgery will be first step, and the decision to be made is whether breast conservation surgery (BCS) is possible. If it is, BCS plus radiation is completely equivalent to mastectomy, so radical surgery is not usually necessary. Sometimes DCIS can be multi-focal, and a mastectomy is needed to be sure you get it all removed.
On your breast specimen, estrogen, progesterone and Her2 receptors (we call these ER, PR and Her2 respectively) will be analyzed. Given microinvasive disease, lymph nodes will be assessed (usually sentinel node procedure is done these days). All of this information will then be used to decide a treatment plan. If ER +/- PR positive, you would receive hormonal therapy. Depending on actual tumor size, if you are Her2 positive, you would receive trastuzumab (Herceptin), though if you invasive tumor was 1 mm or two, maybe Herceptin wouldn't be offered (it is not given for DCIS under any circumstance).

Decision making regarding chemotherapy is complex and can't be reduced to a few paragraphs. Similarly, the discussions about this in my office are usually the longest i do because of this complexity. Be sure you get your money's worth!

Blessings


Answer:
Lumpectomy or possibly mastectomy with follow up of radiation, chemotherapy or both depending on biopsy and surgical results.

You need to be talking to your oncologist about this as the surgery needs to be done sooner rather than later.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Cancer Q&A. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or TrackBack URI from your own site.

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