Cancer of Axillery Tail Right Breast

honeybair

I have just been diagnosed with a tumor in my right arm pit, possibly a recurrence of my carcionoma in situ, stage 0, of 11 years ago.  My oncologist says my type of cancer is rare and I am only the second patient he has seen in his 27 years of practice.   Would love to hear from anyone else who has had a similar experience.  There is very little information available on the internet about this type of cancer and the success rate of treating it. My treatment options suggestions as 5 weeks of chemo followed by surgery, possibly a radical mastectomy.

SeattleMama

Hi honeybair - never heard of this.  so is the tumor detached of the nodes?  or it IS the node or nodes?

I just had modified radical and 10/10 nodes were cancer.  {{huggs}}

beacon800

Seems unlikely to be a recurrance as your first cancer was in situ.  A tumor in the tail of the breast is, I think, similar to other breast cancers, except for the location.  There is breast tissue that runs behind the breast and up into the underarm area.  This is called the tail of Spence, as I recall, after the guy who found it.

There have been some posters on the forum that had it.  I hope they will see your post and comment.  I have not heard that the survival is any worse than a regular breast cancer.  I am sorry  you are facing this, but hope you will be well.

honeybair

Hi SeattleMama and beacon 800.  I really do not know very many details about anything.  My doctor did not tell me much and just seeing him to find out whether this cancer had spread was about all I could face last week. The pathology report that I received a copy of indicated that it could be a recurrence.   I will look up cancer in the tail of Spence.  Not much info is available when searching for axillary tail breast cancer.  I am just happy to have received reponses from the two of you.

I will visit a second oncologist this week for a second opinion and will perhaps receive more inf from her. 

Outfield

Sometimes it's called the Tail of Spence, and sometimes just the tail.  By the time I got around to learning anatomy, I think there was a general push away from naming parts and diseases after people.

michelle2224

I am pretty sure this is what I have. Exact same symptoms as you and exact same pathology report. Negative breast mammo twice and negative breast ultrasound. Even my gynecologist thinks it is Cancer of the Tail of Spence. I have my appointment with the oncologist tomorrow as I had a PET scan yesterday.

David_C

Yes my wife was just diagnosed with this.

Originally they thought it was a 1.5 cm met in the Axillary lymph nodes.

They expected to find a tumor in the breast when they gave her an MRI, instead they found nothing, so the surgeon did a lumpectomy to remove it and the pathology confirmed it was the primary tumor site in the tail of spence.

It's rare but since its breast tissue, breast cancer can develop there.