my moms cancer just came back after 17 years, will mine?

sockarmom

I had a lumpectomy in March, 2013.  Stage 1-2, DCIS, ER/PR+, negative lymph nodes. 9 lymph nodes removed.  2 months of radiation. My mom had breast cancer 17 years ago and hers just came back again.  Did the chances of mine returning just go up? Im really wondering if I should get a mastectomy now? 

Beesie

Was your mother diagnosed with breast cancer in the breast, or has she been diagnosed with mets? If she has breast cancer in the breast, then while it's possible that this is a recurrence after 17 years, it's probably more likely that this is new primary breast cancer. Anyone who's had breast cancer one time can get it again (we are all still women, and all women are at risk to get breast cancer). In fact all of us who've been diagnosed one time are at a somewhat higher risk (than the average woman) to get breast cancer again. But still, most women who are diagnosed one time never do get BC again.

You may have been higher risk to get breast cancer in the first place because your mother had breast cancer - most breast cancer is not genetic but certainly it's possible that yours had a genetic component - but once you have breast cancer, your risk of having a recurrence relates to the specifics of your cancer - the pathology, how early it was found, and how it was treated. So your mother having a recurrence wouldn't mean that you are more likely to.

What I am confused about is your statement that you had "Stage 1-2, DCIS". DCIS is always Stage 0. So did you mean that you had grade 1-2 DCIS, or did you have invasive cancer that was Stage I or Stage II?

sockarmom

Sorry, I believe it would be Stage I-II then, almost 2 cm? it was DCIS.  How can they tell if its another breast cancer or mets in the other breast?

Beesie

If you had DCIS, then it's Stage 0. For DCIS, the size of the area of cancer doesn't matter.

Is your mother's second diagnosis in the other breast? Then it's almost certainly a new breast cancer, and not a recurrence and not mets. So that's really good news, since it means that the previous diagnosis was treated effectively and the cancer has not returned. Your mother just unfortunately developed breast cancer, a new cancer, again.