Diagnosed with Cancer? Your two greatest challenges are understanding cancer and understanding possible side effects from chemo and radiation.  Knowledge is Power!

Learn about conventional, complementary, and integrative therapies.

Dealing with treatment side effects? Learn about evidence-based therapies to alleviate your symptoms.

Click the orange button to the right to learn more.

DCIS- Active Surveillance or Double Mastectomy? Or Non-Toxic Therapy?

Share Button

What exactly is it (DCIS)— a pre-cancer, cancer or more a risk factor? How much treatment is too much? Too little?

Studies confirm that treatments for DCIS such as lumpectomy, whole-breast radiation and/or an aromatase inhibitor (tamoxifen) will reduce the risk of relapse of DCIS or invasive breast cancer.

Image result for photo of dcis

Studies also confirm that the conventional therapies mentioned above can cause short, long-term and late stage side effects as well. Further, “Almost all women with DCIS survive over the long term, regardless of whether they get lumpectomies or mastectomies, studies have shown.”

What if   patients could choose a therapy to reduce her risk of breast cancer but not risk toxic side effects? Or choose minor treatment such as a lumpectomy but not risk side effects that come from radiation and chemotherapy (tamoxifen is chemotherapy after all)?

Studies have identified a host of non-toxic, non-conventional therapies that reduce the risk of breast cancer. Many of these therapies, such a antioxidant supplementation, also reduce the risk of other cancers.

I am a cancer survivor and cancer coach. I have lived with an “incurable” cancer since my diagnosis in ’94 by living an evidence-based, non-toxic, anti-cancer lifestyle through nutrition, supplementation, bone health, detoxification, etc.  I have learned that conventional oncology has little to offer pre-cancers (DCIS) and late stage or incurable cancers.

 

Have you been diagnosed with DCIS? Scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Recommended Reading:


Waiting and watching with ‘Stage 0’ breast cancer put to nationwide test

“Barbara Nickles and Ligia Toro de Stefani are both women in their early 60s who were diagnosed with abnormal cells in a breast, or Stage 0 breast cancer, as it’s sometimes labeled. Nickles decided to have a double mastectomy. Toro de Stefani opted for “active surveillance” and a twice-yearly battery of tests…

The two illustrate the vexing questions facing the 60,000 women a year diagnosed in this country with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a condition in which cancerous-looking cells are found in the breast duct. What exactly is it — a pre-cancer, cancer or more a risk factor? How much treatment is too much? Too little? Which women can safely skip surgery? What about those who want more treatment than their doctors recommend?

The DCIS conundrum is sparking increasingly heated debate among physicians as well. Most say the condition, while not cancer, needs aggressive treatment because 20 percent to 30 percent of cases will spread to surrounding tissue and become invasive cancer if left alone. To date, that has meant surgery for DCIS patients; most have lumpectomies, often followed by radiation, but some undergo mastectomies. Some women also end up taking an anti-cancer drug — such as tamoxifen — for several years…

About 255,200 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, with about 1 in 4 of those with DCIS — a condition that was rarely identified before mammograms became widespread in the 1980s. Almost all women with DCIS survive over the long term, regardless of whether they get lumpectomies or mastectomies, studies have shown…

 

 

Leave a Comment:

2 comments
Cindy says 7 years ago

It depends on the type of DCIS. If it becomes invasive BRCA, it can be deadly. I’d rather have surgery than a year of chemo and radiation, and possibly lymphodema for the rest of my life.

Reply
    David Emerson says 7 years ago

    Hi Cindy-

    That is exactly the type of input I like to read on posts. Thank you for your view. What do you know about Oncotype DCIS to genetically test for what you are talking about?

    thanks

    David Emerson

    Reply
Add Your Reply