I was recalled after a breast cancer screening where I was not expecting anything unusual. The biopsy diagnosis was solid papillary carcinoma and micro papillary DCIS. Three lumpectomies later, which all showed a margin of less than 1mm, I am facing a mastectomy. The scans (mammograms & ultrasound done at the initial biopsy) have underestimated the extent of what is there. Micropapillary cancer is very rare. Has anyone else come across this and, if so, what type of scans did you have? I am also having a sentinel node biopsy at the same time as the mastectomy and hope that these are clear.

I am interested in whether it was only the solid papillary carcinoma that showed up on the initial screening mammogram or whether they could also see the micro papillary bit (even if they did not know that it was micropapillary at that stage). I would like them to compare this to what the end result shows after the mastectomy, but it looks as if they will not be doing that. I am worried that if I have/get micropapillary cancer in the other breast that it will not show up on a mammogram. It looks as if they would not do a mastectomy on the other breast unless they were sure that there was cancer there.