Long-term survival of DCIS patients without radiation or hormone therapy

judith40

I'm interested in hearing from people who did not have radiation or hormone therapy after a lumpectomy for DCIS

moderators

Thanks for posting, and welcome @judith40 ♥️

harley07

Hello Judith - survival statistics are dependent on a number of factors such as patient age at time of diagnosis hormone profile and grade of DCIS. I would ask your doctors to provide this information - what is risk of recurrence and what is overall survival with and without radiation and hormone therapy.

I was 63 when diagnosed so I had 5 accelerated partial breast radiation treatments after my lumpectomy for stage 1 invasive ductal cancer per my RO’s recommendation. My surgeon said she would have considered skipping radiation based on my age and stage 1 diagnosis.

Having run the Predict UK breast calculator (not valid for DCIS only), it appears that neither radiation nor hormone therapy offers much benefit in my case. I’m now 67 and have not had a mammogram in over 3 years - mostly because my care was so poorly handled when I was diagnosed and partly because I think BC is over diagnosed and over treated.

You need to make a decision based on what is best for you. Your doctors should be able to provide you with additional information.

If you are older, you may find an article here on BCO titled “Many older women can skip radiation after lumpectomy” to be helpful. Unfortunately I am unable to link it for you however, you should be able to find it using the search bar.

Best of luck with your treatment.

judith40

Thank you for your response. Because of osteoporosis I do not want to use hormone therapy. I just received a second radiologist opinion. Both radiologists recommended radiation but now I have three estimates of risk of recurrence: 18%, 15%, 11%(15 min with surgeon). I need to decide very soon since I am now 8 weeks from my lumpectomy. Because I'm 84 I'm only faced with, at most unlikely, 15 years. Now stories of lung, and some rib damage, are causing my hesitation. Again, thank you for your message.

quietgirl

I think the hard part is that many people with DCIS don't stay around particularly if they aren't in active treatment. So the succcess stories you are looking for are of course out there just not on here to a great extend. Most professionals will agree that DCIS is over treated. That many don't need radiation might not have even needed surgery but for many the idea of wait and see is very hard and we just want it out. Again I know this isn't the information you were looking for but just because you aren't getting tons of responses from people who made the choice not to do radiation after a lumpectomy doesn't mean they don't exist just that they don't hang out on the boards any more. Wishing you peace with your decision. It would be one thing if radiation is a guarantee but it's not so you just need to make the choice that is best for you with your overall health considered