CONTROVERSIES

Controversy?  Where do I begin?
There is the debate over whether dcis is cancer or is not cancer.
Then there is the debate over treatment.
We could move on to the more obscure issues, like the medical professionals who debate whether women should even be told that they have dcis! (yes, really - how ridiculous can someone be!!!)

Cancer or not cancer?  To a large extent, what difference does it make?  Of course, I'm like everywoman who would rather not have CANCER!  But, whatever you call it, it's a condition.  So the more important question, to my thinking, is really about how to treat this thing that is currently called dcis.

Generally treatments range from double mastectomy to wait and see with or without estrogen inhibiting drugs.  In reading about some women's experiences, some described going through chemotherapy (which mainstream sources say should never be part of standard of care treatment for uncomplicated dcis).  So there you are.  Complicating the treatment choices is the range of dcis - from a tiny single something to large multiple lesions.

Everywoman needs to make her own choice of treatment(s) and be able to live at peace with her choice.  I believe that the goal for everywoman should be matching up the characteristics of her dcis with the correct treatment regime.  I have a few observations that distress me as I hear women's accounts in various support group.

First, some women don't get themselves fully informed.  As I develop my blog, I will create a page of web links.  There is simply no excuse for not being fully informed.  Even without a computer, there are libraries with books and internet access.  Getting educated is the first step because it gives a woman a foundation to absorb the information that a physician provides.  It's sort of like planting a tree in the ground upon which you add branches and leaves.  In this day of modern medicine, when physicians have huge demands on their time, a physician should appreciate a patient who depends upon the physician for every bit of information that she needs.

Not that all the information is helpful,  But, if you read enough, you can distinguish among the sources and begin to identify what sounds objectively correct as well as what information is meaningful and useful to a particular woman's situation. 

Everyone, women who are patients, as well as their friends and families and their physicians, has individual points of view, biases and emotions.  Which is why getting educated is so important.  Each person needs to be able to separate sound basic factual information from information emanating from personal opinions.  I believe that it is possible to do that.  Perhaps most important is that, when a woman is told she has dcis, her initial anxieties are calmed so that she can do think clearly and do the research. 

Everything I've read indicates the same: WITH DCIS THERE IS TIME TO DECIDE A TREATMENT PLAN.  It would be a very rare circumstance, indeed, when a woman would need to make a decision in a couple weeks, let alone actually have a mastectomy in a couple weeks after diagnosis.

Here's an in depth article that presents a number of experts' points of view.  Well worth slogging through a detailed article.  http://www.captodayonline.com/dcis-real-risk-lie/