Advice Needed Please

sars-82

Hi. First time poster here. Please bear with me, I'll keep the background story to a minimum.

My aunt was diagnosed in 2010 with stage 3 breast cancer. 2 x double doses of chemo, 1 x double round of radiation and a lumpectomy on her left breast and left sentinel node and multiple aux nodes followed over the course of that year.

Fast forward to Jan 2013 and she developed an abcess on the lumpectomy scar. It was continuously getting worse and leaking pus/blood - she saw fourteen different GP's (I kid you not) from Jan through to July and each one (one of whom was a trained oncologist) misdiagnosed her (and just kept re-prescribing more antibiotics for her) - until she had her annual checkup with her cancer surgeon in July 2013 and who informed her that the abcess on her scar was in fact, Inflammatory Breast Cancer. My aunt is large-chested and the IBC was very big and at Stage 3. She had a round of 3 x chemo doses, a mastectomy and another round of 3 x chemo doses that finished up in late November 2013.

She went in to see the surgeon early last week to discuss her reconstruction and he informed her that the IBC is back again, in the mastectomy scar.

I'm worried sick about her and worried sick about the potential of the IBC having spread to other areas, given the time the cancer has had this year, to grow in/on her left breast prior to the mastectomy. She has not had a CT or any other scans on other parts of her body to confirm whether it has gone elsewhere at this stage.

Does this diagnosis of the IBC coming back in her mastectomy scar constitute as another recurrence? Or is it generally considered more so that the chemo and surgery from 2013 wasn't effective enough to fully kill the IBC? What happens next for her? She couldn't have more radiation in 2013 with the IBC due to the heart damage she has incurred from the radiation in 2010. 

If someone could please respond, I'd be extremely appreciative.

Thanks

Sarah

Anonymous

Would you mind giving your general location?  For instance, are you in USA, Canada, or other country?  I find it amazing that anyone diagnosed with IBC would not have any scans at all.  If you are in the US, find a new surgeon/oncologist who has EXPERIENCE treating IBC.  As in more than 10 cases in their career.  I had 7 months of chemo so your treatment seems 'light' to me but maybe others can speak up if theirs was similar to yours.

Faith316

That is kinda similar to what happened to me.  While in the midst of treatment for my initial dx of DCIS and IDC, I developed all the signs of IBC.  Doctors kept telling me that there was no way with all the chemo and radiation that I had that I could possibly have IBC.  But, when biopsied, I was right.  It was IBC.  I first saw symptoms of it in January but wasn't actually dx until June but when I had a PET/CT, it showed that it had NOT spread.  

I was referred to the IBC clinic at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX and my onc there changed me to a different combination of chemo drugs.  A month later when back to Houston, it was extremely obvious that all the signs were going away.  6 months later, I had a uni-mx and the pathology showed NED.  I am still NED and plan to stay that way!!  (A little more of my history is in my signature below.)

Hope this helps give you some hope!