Ava, an active woman in her 60s, living a healthy lifestyle, scheduled her routine mammogram never thinking that it might result in anything. However, the mammogram revealed something concerning and her doctor recommended a biopsy. Ava was skiing some powder (she’s an AVID snow skier) when she received the call that the biopsy had confirmed ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), also known as stage zero breast cancer. Ava’s first response “I don’t do sick. It’s not my brand.”
Like most newly diagnosed DCIS patients, she took to the internet to learn all she could. In her research, she found www.PreludeDx.com and learned about DCISionRT, the only DCIS test capable of predicting an individual patient’s benefit from radiation therapy. DCISionRT provides patients and their physicians with 10-year Total and Invasive Recurrence Risk after breast conserving surgery, as well as surgery with radiation therapy.
“When I spoke with my surgical oncologist and oncologist, they told me that the ‘standard of care’ was breast conserving surgery plus radiation and estrogen blocking therapy. Then, the radiation oncologist told me that with my DCIS ‘I had a 40% chance of recurrence if I didn’t do radiation’. I didn’t want the side effects of radiation or hormone therapy. Radiation therapy changes the cells of your breast and removes the ability to do additional breast conserving surgery or radiation if your cancer returns. Plus, I am tiny with large breasts so I may want to have a breast reduction later, which would not be an option following radiation. Hormone therapy side effects were described as ‘severe body pain, induced osteoporosis and feeling like an old lady’. No thank you!”
I kept asking for the DCISionRT test. My surgical oncologist was not aware of the test and not interested in considering it. However, my radiation oncologist did know about DCISionRT and was totally behind ordering it. We ordered the test, and my results came back as very low risk of recurrence and the difference between doing radiation and no radiation was very small.”
“In my follow-up appointment with the radiation oncologist, he concluded that ‘these test results are based on your biology and there is no need for you to have radiation’. So, I was done with treatment! The doctors will continue to monitor me and if my cancer comes back, we can still consider other options at that time.”
“Had I not had the DCISionRT test, I may have moved forward with radiation. But the test gave me the confidence to follow my instincts of no radiation therapy. My advice for other DCIS patients is do your research, listen to your doctors’ recommendations and advocate for getting as much information for your own self as you can. I was fortunate to have had a forward-thinking radiation oncologist, but even with that I had to be assertive to get the DCISionRT test.”
When Ava is not hiking or on the ski slopes, she manages the marketing for Waterwise Gardening, which specializes in low-water native plants for Western Gardens, as well as plants for pollinators, such as hummingbirds, butterflies and bees.
