One additional thought: I don't know if you are taking hormone replacement therapy, but if you are, it might be something to discuss with your doctor.
Hormone replacement therapy can raise the risk of an uncommon type of breast cancer fourfold after just three years, U.S. researchers reported in 2010. They found women who took combined estrogen/progestin hormone-replacement therapy for three years or more had four times the usual risk of lobular breast cancer.
Their study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, is one of dozens trying to paint a clearer picture of what dangers might come from taking HRT to treat menopause symptoms.
"Previous research indicated that five or more years of combined hormone-therapy use was necessary to increase overall breast-cancer risk," Dr. Christopher Li of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement. "Our study, the first specifically designed to evaluate the relationship between combined HRT and lobular breast cancers, suggests that a significantly shorter length of exposure to such hormones may confer an increased risk."
Lobular breast cancer accounts for about 10 percent of invasive breast cancer -- the kind that threatens to spread -- according to the American Cancer Society. It can be treated with hormone-based therapies such as tamoxifen, but the tumors are more difficult to detect by mammograms, meaning it is often diagnosed in more advanced stages.
bb
Hi,
Questions in this forum are answered by survivors and other volunteers generally not identified as medical professionals.
It is great that you are being closely followed by a team of medical professionals at a top cancer center. It would be best to address your questions to them, since they have both the medical expertise and all the details of your specific case, and therefore are in a much better position to make treatment recommendations for you that someone over the Internet.
Best wishes,
bluebutterfly