Mickey, I was a nurse ( would have been a doctor if I'd been more determined, but my background made that difficult in 1960s Australia and I was impatient.) I worked with women with breast cancer and I watched my mother die from it. When I had to make the difficult decision to have mastectomies I did a lot of research into all the latest studies I could find. My doctor helped and I had plenty of time to do this. The current wisdom is as you stated it - Breast cancer is many diseases with many different treatments and many different outcomes. That's not much help is it really - What I mean is you seem to have a handle on it. My case, in a sense, was fairly straight forward and the abnormal cells found after my operation, in the ducts of both breasts, convinced me that I had made the right choice. A less rocky path than yours to be sure. Sadly over the years I cared for many women who had been too scared to seek treatment until too late and the results still haunt me. For my money science, imperfect as it is at the moment, still offers the best hope. I think you are brave and wise and you get my vote as Queen of the Amazon Women. (twice over) Joy