Recurrence during treatment??

oldlady

Can a lump form in the healthy breast while you are undergoing active treatment for the malignant one? I had a lumpectomy, re-excision, 4 tx of TC chemo, and am about 1/2way through radiation. I am supposed to start Tamoxifin after the radiation. My oncotype was literally on the border between low and intermediate risk cutoff.  My tumor was ER/PR+, Stage 2, Her2Neu Neg.  I am in my mid40s and I am the first female on either side of my family diagnosed with BC.  However, I felt something odd last night and of course do not want to overreact.

Anonymous

As much as I HATE to say it but the answer to your question is yes, it can happen.....

Your NOT overreating and I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers for something similar to what I had happen during treatment.

I only had about 6 rad treatments left to go and I found a lump in my arm pit so freaked (of course) I showed it to the rad oncologist and he said to wait until I finished rads then have my medical oncologist take a look....at the end of treatment I saw the medical onco and he ordered a biopsy right away...I had a SNB (sentinal node biopsy) done at the time of my original lumpectomy and when they bx'd the lump in my arm pit it was a stitch that had not desolved....issue resolved

3 months later at my first after treatment finished mammogram the found micro calcifications in my "good" breast....scared the living daylights out of me and AGAIN I freaked....had surgery to removed them and the waiting about drove me buggy.....again, issued resolved....just cacifications.....

Now Im two years out and so scared about all this that I skipped my last mammogram....I just had my 2 yr check up with the medical oncologist and told him what I had done....He said that he really would like me to be vigilant with the mammos as I have dense breast tissue but that he also understood why I skipped the last one....I feel better now as he reassured me that this is common behavior for a lady that has had breast cancer and that Im not too far out of the norm.

I have convinced myself that May of 09 I WILL have that mammo or, possibly as the onco recommended I have an MRI with sedation so that I dont freak....so remember there are options....he also said that most of us are afraid of our minds and emotions during the test result waiting and that he understands the stress levels all this causes.

Please mention this odd feeling to one of your doctors so that you dont go through the stress of wondering any longer than necessare!!!!!!

Hugs

Jule

apple

sigh..

i've done 8 rounds of chemo, had a modified radical mastectomy and am almost finished with radiation.

now some of my other lymph nodes are swollen.. one was already positively biopsied.. so i have a petscan on the 5th of January.

oldlady

Went to the BC Center after my radiation treatment and was whisked right in.  The surgeon said he could feel something but it was malleable and prob. fibrocystic (definition please! ).  He ordered an ultrasound and diag. mam which were done that day and nothing was found.  For once, good news.

ETA:  I looked up fibrocystic definition but am not a lumpy breasted woman so I am not sure why the doctor called it that. Perhaps he meant it was simply benign?  I have been vigilent re: self-checks and medical exams throughout my adult life and the first time a lump was detected was just this last May.