@A MyBCTeam Member and @A MyBCTeam Member, yes, I think a lot of people put down DCIS when they have IDC! It's frustrating. There are classes of cells with DCIS but not stages. 1's are supposed to be not too agressive, 2's more so and 3's agressive but even then if it's all cut out and radiated it doesn't make a difference. It's all about clean margins.

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A MyBCTea...

My neighbor had DCIS in one breast and had a lumpectomy with radiation. 5 years later she got invasive cancer in the other breast and did a bilateral mastectomy.

I had DCIS without any microinvasion 6 years ago and (as far as I know) have not had a recurrence or new cancer. That being said, I go for a mammogram tomorrow. I am a wee bit nervous as my periods have come back after tamoxifen and my other breast feels sore for a couple weeks beforehand. Wished I would've opted for the double mastectomy. In my book, lumpectomy with radiation is just not worth it. But, here I am!

Make sure when you wash you pat your skin not rub/pat dry as well. Use a mild soap like Dove or Neutrogena. Your oncologist or radiologist can recommend a specific moisture or cream if you need it. As Brownsugar49 said moisturers are good. Eucerin is really good and I used that.

I had a reccurrence of my stage one ductal cancer with negative sentinal node 12 years following my initial diagnosis and treatment....I did end up having a left mastectomy ( margins were not clear when I had lumpectomy) and my right breast still has normal mammograms...the metastasis came from microinvasion and traveled to my bones. MY tumor grade was a 1 which was not considered aggressive so one just has to realize that cancer cells are nasty and their activity cannot always be predicted. I ended up being discharged from our local cancer center and the only advice I can give in hindsight is perhaps remaining under the care of an oncologist might have changed my story.