Is surgery always necessary for DCIS?
Is surgery always necessary for DCIS?
Studies show that about 75% of DCIS cases may never become invasive breast cancer. Still, current guidelines for DCIS often recommend surgery, usually lumpectomy followed by radiation, to remove suspicious lesions.
How long can you wait to have surgery for DCIS?
Although most women with DCIS undergo surgical extirpation within 2 months of diagnosis, longer time to surgery is associated with greater risk of finding invasion and should be limited.
Does DCIS always become invasive?
DCIS is considered non-invasive or pre-invasive breast cancer. DCIS can’t spread outside the breast, but it is often treated because if left alone, some DCIS cells can continue to undergo abnormal changes that cause it to become invasive breast cancer (which can spread).
Is mastectomy necessary for DCIS?
Although many cases of DCIS are treated with lumpectomy, your doctor might recommend mastectomy if the DCIS covers a large area or appears in multiple areas of the breast. In most DCIS cases requiring mastectomy, simple or total mastectomy (removal of breast tissue but no lymph nodes) is performed.
Do I need radiotherapy after DCIS?
After a wide local excision (WLE), your cancer doctor will usually recommend you have radiotherapy to the breast if your DCIS is high grade. If your DCIS is low or intermediate grade, your cancer doctor may not recommend that you have radiotherapy. You usually start radiotherapy about 4 to 6 weeks after surgery.
Is DCIS slow growing?
Grade 1 DCIS is almost always ER and PR positive and is a very slow growing form of cancer. It can take years, even decades, to see progression of the disease. In some cases, it may take such a long time to spread beyond the breast duct that it is not an event that will happen during a person’s lifetime.
Should you get a double mastectomy with DCIS?
If the DCIS is large, a mastectomy may be recommended. Removing the opposite breast usually isn’t recommended; chemotherapy usually isn’t recommended either. Hormonal therapy may be recommended if the DCIS is hormone-receptor-positive. DCIS is NOT invasive cancer.
How many times can you have DCIS?
The chances of a recurrence are under 30%. Women who have breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) for DCIS without radiation therapy have about a 25% to 30% chance of having a recurrence at some point in the future.
How should DCIS be treated?
Some DCIS lesions could become invasive, while others remain a harmless precancer. But doctors can’t tell which cases will progress and which ones won’t. As a result, breast cancer specialists recommend that all women who have DCIS be treated with surgery, often followed by radiation and hormone therapy.
Does DCIS require radiation?
Health care providers cannot predict which cases of DCIS will progress to invasive breast cancer and which will not. Because DCIS might progress to invasive breast cancer, almost all cases of DCIS are treated. Surgery (with or without radiation therapy) is recommended to treat DCIS.
Is no treatment the best treatment for DCIS breast cancer?
No alternative medicine treatments have been found to cure DCIS or to reduce the risk of being diagnosed with an invasive breast cancer. Instead, complementary and alternative medicine treatments may help you cope with your diagnosis and the side effects of your treatment, such as distress.
How to cope with DCIS?
Learn enough about DCIS to make decisions about your care. Ask your doctor questions about your diagnosis and your pathology results.
