have to do a partial hysterectomy. However, when they got in there they determined that the endometriosis was everywhere and had to to a full hysterectomy.

After they her doctor prescribed an estrogen patch. Believe it or not, the cancer doctor told her that that patch was most likely the cause of her cancer. I don't understand all the details but that is what they said.

My wife's doctor told us the following and I hope I got this right. Not being a doctor I could easily be giving wrong information below.

My wife had lobular carcinoma which is the second most common kind of breast cancer. It is not like tubular carcinoma (the most common kind of breast cancer) in that it doesn't clump together. This clumping is what mammograms look for so tubular carcinoma is usually pretty easy to find in the early stages.

Lobular carcinoma doesn't clump but goes through the tissue like tentacles so mammograms have a much harder time finding it. So this type of cancer is usually not found until at least stage 2 or later. In my wife's case the tumor was 3 inches long and they said she was at least at stage 3.

The good thing about lobular carcinoma is that it is a slow growing cancer. In fact the doctor told us that my wife probably had cancer for at least 3 or 4 years before they found it.