Recurrance after mastectomy

3rdtimenow

Interesting conversation today in the Rad waiting room. 5 women there, all thought you can not get cancer after mastectomy. Every doc I have seen, says wow that is not supposed to happen, well it can happen. Mastectomy is a good treatment to prevent BC and BC recurrence, but women need to know it is not 100%. There is 1% risk. We still need to be proactive, check our breasts and ask for MRI's. Our future is in our own hands.

Kicks

I have never heard any Dr who said that a mast. was a "good treatment to prevent BC and BC recurrance"   It (hopefully) can remove all that is already there but prevent - NO.  Not to forget metastacies.  Unfortunately, there are so many myths/ignorance when it comes to BC.  So many think all BC is the same - not that different types (stage, hormone) have different TX plans and prognosis are important when it comes to TX.

It is up to us to be pro- active but that doesn't always work for all of us  I had my annual mammo in late June - it was what it had been for years.  I developed an enlarged node under arm literally overnight and was DXd IBC a week later.

Did you ask these 5 women why they were doing rads?   

3rdtimenow

Many women have preventative mastectomies on the advice of their doctors, if there is a strong family history and it works for many of them. They also can be a better treatment, than lumpectomy in some cases, to prevent recurrence. My only point is that we should not rest assured, that we will never deal with breast cancer again, many people believe this we still need to be proactive. Everyone in the room men and women were very surprised that I was back after mastectomy. Most of the women there had lumpectomies, some had chemo and some only rads.

Stix

cancer is probably 5-7 percent lifetime risk after mastectomy

sandilee

Where did that statistic come from, Stix?   Once you have had cancer, a mastectomy  will not keep you any safer from metastases than a lumpectomy.  It may protect you somewhat from a local  recurrence, but if it's in your blood it can show up somewhere else in the body if it has already traveled to other sites. 

 Now, it's a different issue if you are getting a mastectomy before a cancer diagnosis, as Angelina Jolie and others with genetic issues.  But once you have cancer, unfortunately, a mastectomy is no guarantee at all that it will not return. 

3rdtimenow

The problem is most people don't know this, I was told 1%. The risk is considered so low that no regular screening are done after mastectomy and I think this needs to change. My doc only did an MRI, as he said," because you are a worrier" I felt the lump and 6 different docs said it was only scar tissue, because I had had a mastectomy.