Mine was caught early (stage1A), but genomic testing (Prosigna or Oncotype) scored the tumor high for likelihood of distant recurrence, so I took 4 rounds chemo. Didn’t have any idea stage 1 breast cancer ever had to take chemo. It was a shock, and it was brutal. Some things will never be the same because of chemo destruction.
My wife was diagnosed with essentially the same a few years ago. Purely by luck it was caught early because her breast tissue always appeared fibrous in the mammograms. Fortunately the doctors seem to switch radiologists frequently so each time she had a mammogram a new radiologist would raise the issue of the fibrous texture. Out of caution they did further imaging and only through that they found a very tiny tumor. On the computer screen with contrast it looked pretty scary to me (and her) we could see the blood vessel feeding it. It was small though just looked big on the screen. She was offered lumpectomy but opted for mastectomy. She took the genetics tests and came back as unlikely to have a genetic proclivity but I don’t know how valid those tests are. Anyway she said “Get the whole gland out of me”. Can’t say I blame her for that.
So her doctors did the surgery. There was no nodal involvement. But they recommended radiation and some kind of hormone therapy, but she declined both. Went back recently (with covid lockdowns she waited too long imo but things were wacky everywhere) but fortunately so far they found everything clear and we hope and pray it will stay that way and she lives a long a fruitful cancer-free life.
And we hope and pray the same for you.