Siobhan Freeney, Founder of Lobular Ireland, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Ten years On – No lessons learned
Today I spoke with a woman who referred for additional Breast cancer Imaging because she instinctively believed all was not ok. She’d had her routine Breast Check Mammogram which had been reported as CLEAR but within 6 months, she was told she had a 10cm Invasive Lobular Cancer which had already spread to numerous Axillary Nodes.
Her question ‘how long was the tumor there?’ was met with the same old ‘We’ll never know – that’s a six million dollar question’ she was told ‘not to look back’ to ‘look forward and get on with her treatment plan’.
Gruelling rounds of neoadjuvant Chemotherapy, a single Mastectomy (she was refused a double Mastectomy) Axillary node clearance Surgery, Radiotherapy and several years of Aromatase Inhibitors and CDK4/6 Inhibitors.
As I listened to her story, I couldn’t but feel that she was retelling my story from 2015. Over a Decade later and nothing has changed. Here in Ireland we have some of the best Breast Oncologists and Surgeons in Europe but they refuse to acknowledge International evidence based research regarding ILC and commonly associated issues with Mammogram Imaging (particularly in Dense breasts).
She was then told that going forward she wouldn’t meet the criteria for Supplemental Imaging. She would be offered an annual Mammogram but would NOT be offered an Ultrasound or Breast MRI as surveillance Imaging on her ‘good breast’. She was also refused information about her Breast Density.
This isn’t nearly good enough! Irish women deserve better.
Oncologists, Surgeons should ask themselves IF it was their own Mother, Sister, Daughter, would they refuse to offer them essential surveillance MRI Imaging? Would they refuse them access to their Breast Density information?
The psychosocial impacts of late diagnosis leave a long lasting impression on Women, especially when we discover that our Breast cancer Screening Mammograms failed to detect sizable late stage tumors which were allowed to grow, unnoticed for several years.”
Other articles about breast density on OncoDaily.