To some extent she is going to have to unbury her head because, unless she has very early stage or very late stage or unusually aggressive breast cancer, she is probably going to have a choice of treatment options. There is much less unformity in how breast cancer is treated than how oral cancer is treated (and we've seen even for oral cancer a lot of variation). She should definitely get a second opinion on what treatment would be best but also some of the choice is personal preference. For example, if it is early stage breast cancer, she probably has the option of lumpectomy/sentinal node remnoval followed by radiation or mastectomy which may not have to be followed by radiation but she will probably want it folowed by reconstructive surgery (she can get better reconstructive surgery if it is done with no radiation and that's important to know). If it is early stage, there can be arguments for and against having chemo and what type of chemo to have. Depending on what type of breast cancer it is, and how advanced, there can be arguments for and against followup adjunvant therapy with Tamoxifen, etc. etc.

I would call the ACS and see if they have patient advocates who are breast cancer survivors themselves if she is someone who seems to need someone to lean on. She would really benefit having someone who has been through this themselves go with her to appointments. They would also know of support groups in the area.

Nelie