Table 3 What women were told by their doctors

P05

The doctors told me that I have a lump and that they are going to remove the whole breast. …. they did not say anything about removing just the lump.

P13

…the [surgeon] told me that I needed to get my breast fully excised and removed and that it would be good to do so.

P01

…the surgeon told that if I had come earlier, they would’ve been able to do BCS and that I may have recovered after completing the drug therapy. But when we showed up, it was too late, and the lump had already become large.

P02

I asked [the surgeon] if I could go for BCS, as I thought that it would be difficult for me to go out as usual, if I did mastectomy. But [the surgeon] said that since it has already spread to the axillary region, and since my child is still very young, it would be good to remove the whole breast …that I could live longer.

P04

The [surgeon] told me that if I underwent BCS the cancer may recur or spread to other sites and that I may have to have another surgery if it does

P08

When I asked the [surgeon] if the lump can be removed, he said that was an option too, but I will have to undergo radiotherapy…I repeatedly asked if I could get the lump removed instead of the whole breast, but the [surgeon] was insistent that the latter was the better option.

P12

Initially the surgeon said they would remove the lump, and since there was nipple discharge, they would also remove tissue from the areolar area. Later, after doing the MRI, they told me that they would remove the whole breast.

P15

[The doctors] said that it had spread to the lymph nodes so the whole breast needed to be removed, and if not, other areas may also become affected.