mastectomy for both breasts... pls need advice

zohra

Hello ,

My mother done with chemo. Today , she had appointment with her surgen. The doc wants mastectomy right breat. The breast that has cancer. (But she wants mastectomy for her both breasts)

She think that  the cancer can come back in her left breast. That's why she wants mastectomy her both breasts. Please , I just need your advice what do you think about her decision . Any information will be helpfull.

Thanks

Zohra

Kodapants

Hi,I had both breasts done and glad that I did.  Path report showed I had cancer growing in left. I had chemo before and after as well. Good luck.

Kodapants

ssla01

I have cancer in one, but will be having both sides removed. I want as much peace of mind as possible. I only want to go through this surgery once.



Good luck to you & your Mother.

zohra

Thanks for reply . I need more feedbacks pls. The surgeon told me may be she will survive two or three years so no reason to give her hard time ... I really dont know why he said that ... My mother is stage IIIB. Many people serving when they are in stage 4.

Thanks

Outfield

Zohra, I replied on your other thread as well about my own decision (bilateral).  

My experience wasn't that the prophylactic mastectomy was not a difficult surgery (mine were done at the same time), but I was young and very healthy.  The axillary node dissection on the side where I had invasive cancer was 10 times as hard to recover from than the mastectomy parts.  I also had not had chemo prior to my surgery, I had it after.  My surgeon has chatted with me about sometimes just getting a patient through the one mastectomy is a challenge if they have just finished chemo, so sometimes she has to wait to do the other side.  Is your mom pretty healthy now?  If she's not, and the surgeon is worried about things like incisions closing and overall healing, then that's a different story than if she's healthy with no reason to expect healing problems.  

I don't know why he said that either.  I wouldn't want to have conversations about prognosis with the surgeon, that's more of a medical oncologist's area, and the other part of it is that although there are basic stats, it's really difficult to predict one woman's future.  If your mom is healthy and should do well in surgery, the "no reason to give her a hard time" argument doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  I think your surgeon needs to explain that better.

havefaith20

Hi Zohra,

Your mom is correct. I'm 35yr and just completed bilateral mastectomy to reduce my risk of a re-occurrence. My doctors and other clinically staff also agreed with my decision because a lot of women opt for one breast and end up having to come back the following year or two for a re-occurrence in the other breast. The only painful part for me was the drainage tubes after surgery. Once they were removed between 1-2 weeks, I felt no further pain.  

Beesie

There is a difference between a recurrence - the same cancer coming back - and a second diagnosis of breast cancer.  

In actual fact breast cancer almost never recurs in the other breast. Our breasts are not connected to each other.  If breast cancer cells leave the breast and move into the body through the lymphatic system or vascular system, these cancer cells normally will move to another organ (the liver, for example) or into the bones. This is metastisis. It would be pretty unusual for the breast cancer cells to move through the lymphatic system or bloodstream and land in the other breast.  

So a diagnosis of breast cancer doesn't put your other breast at risk of recurrence. However, once any of us are diagnosed with BC one time, we are higher risk to be diagnosed again, in either breast. Still it's important to realize that most women are diagnosed once and only once.

The risk to be diagnosed again depends on many factors, including one's age and the type of cancer.  The younger you are, the more years you have ahead of you in which you may be diagnosed.  Also, if you are diagnosed when you are younger, the trigger for the development of the breast cancer was not likely the normal aging process (our cells tend to fail us as we get older and that's why more older people develop cancer) but is more likely to be something else.  This "something else" could lead to the development of cancer in the other breast.  Zohra, how old is your mother?  The development of a second cancer is much less likely in someone who is in her 60s or 70s or older. 

One factor that does increase your mother's risk is that she has ILC. ILC is one particular type of breast cancer that does increase the future risk for both breasts.

Zohra, ultimately this is a decision your mother has to make based on what she is comfortable with. It's an extremely personal decision, full of emotion. There are medical issues but more often, the decision - either to have a BMX or not have a BMX - is made for non-medical reasons.  If your mother is not planning reconstruction and she would be prefer to be flat on both sides, that's a good reason why she might prefer to have a BMX.  If she is concerned that she would worry constantly about the other side - even if in reality the risk is quite low - that might also be a good reason. It's good if you can help her think through her options and works through the pros and cons, but please try to stay as neutral as you can in any discussions.  In the end it's very important that your mother make her own decision and that you support her, whatever she decides.