Newly diagnosed stage 1 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma
Trying to decide between lumpectomy and radiation or bilateral mastectomy. Want to hear from some who have gone through each
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ER/PR+, HER2-, genetic testing-
Not a candidate for reconstruction using abdominal tissue due to past surgeries. Do not want to do tissue expanders and implants but also don’t want to do radiation.
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Hi @chachi , and welcome! We’re really sorry you’re facing these tough decisions, but we’re glad you found our community.
Choosing between lumpectomy with radiation and mastectomy can feel overwhelming, especially when certain options like reconstruction or radiation don’t feel right to you. Hopefully some other member will jump in soon to share how they made their choices. In the meantime, these articles from our main site may help as you think things through:
We hope this helps. And we’re here to support you!
The Mods
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I am in same boat just diagnosed on December 8th.
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I also was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. In discussing with my doctors they gave the option of lumpectomy or mastectomy and recommended going with the least invasive of the surgeries, so I had a lumpectomy. I also had two lymph nodes removed. I feel that my surgery recovery was pretty smooth. Because I am also triple negative I have undergone TC chemo (4 infusions) and will be getting radiation in January. Good luck with your treatment! You got this!
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On December 2015, I was diagnosed in with stage 3a TNBC (invasive ductal carcinoma) in my left breast at the age of 45. Genetic testing revealed I also carried the BRCA! gene. It was an easy decision to choose the double mastectomy and having my fallopian tubes and ovaries removed. I had thought of about nipple sparing surgery but the radiation oncology didn't understand why I would have radical surgery and risk saving my nipples. My thought process was in case I decided to do reconstruction. Since I wanted to do everything possible to beat TNBC and see my children grow up I decided to not save the nipples. After surgery, traces of the cancer were still present in my breast and lymph nodes, plus my healthy right breast had a lesion growing.
After surgery, there was 4 more rounds of chemo, which was followed by 2 weeks of radiation. Then, another 12 rounds of chemo (in pill form) was recommended to reduce my risk of recurrence. It's December 2025 and the TNBC has not recurred. I recently had surgery for renal cell carcinoma that happened to be separate new cancer. Due to all the extra yearly testing that's done due to the BRCA1 gene the RCC was caught at stage 1a while screening my pancreas. Part of my right kidney was removed; no chemo or rads was necessary.
It's important to have confidence in your doctor. Also, talking to cancer survivors can lead you to ask questions about your treatment. Knowledge is power too!
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how big is the tumor? I’m doing lumpectomy with radiation and getting surgery in a couple of weeks. I really didn’t want a mastectomy given my tumor is only 1cm and I have fairly large breasts for my size.
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my tumor is 0.35 cm but I am going to do mastectomy.
my genetics test is negative but unfortunately cancer is in my family.1
