Is this a recurrence for my mom?

pp729

Hi ladies, I have not been on this board in a long while as my mom has been doing very well -- still NED and every 6 month oncologist visit has been fine.  She's 4-1/2 years out from diagnosis in January 2011.  BUT....had her annual mammo last week on her left (remaining) breast and they saw something unusual.  Perhaps a cyst, as she does have them, or perhaps not.  She's going in for an ultrasound in a couple of weeks when she returns from a trip, so meanwhile, my head is spinning.  How common is a recurrence in the opposite breast?

pp729

Should have given you all this info from her original diagnosis: My mom:

1/2011: Mod. Diff. IDC; 1.7X1.5X1.4cm; Focal dermal lymphatic involvement; ER+99%; PR+98%; HER-2/NEU Neg; BR=9/9=Grade III; Ki67=80%; Oncotype=36;

4/2011: Unil. mastectomy-no addit. malignancies/no residual carcinoma/benign nodes; Stage IIIb; Declined recommended chemo.  On AIs from 3/2011 to 4/2012 then off due to side effects.

Colt45

Hey,

I just wanted to respond in hopes that others will, too. Yes, women can get cancer in the other breast. So it's possible, though I don't know how probable. It is my observation that mammograms can miss things as well as give 'false positives'. I think the important thing is that your mom is following up with an ultrasound---which is a better tool in my experience than just relying on a mammogram. Try to remain calm. It could be nothing and your mom sounds like she is doing the responsible follow up. A lot of women have something show up on a mammogram---but after closer review---everything is fine. My heart goes out to you as a person who loves a woman who used to have breast cancer. There are some anxious moments for our ladies AND us. But so many pass without complication. Hang in there.

dltnhm

Hi there.

Sorry that your mom is facing something. After so many clear mammograms, this probably caught you both off guard. An ultrasound is often the very next step and I am hoping that your mom's imaging reveals a cyst and nothing more.

Because this is on your mother's remaining breast, she would not be dealing with a recurrence regardless. This would be a new primary. It is possible to have a local recurrence or a new primary in the original breast, but it is ALWAYS a new primary if cancer shows up in the unaffected healthy breast. This is called contralateral breast cancer or CBC.

I found this article relating to this: "Risk of asynchronous contralateral breast cancer: multiple approaches for a complex issue" (May 2013)

http://www.glandsurgery.org/article/view/1864/2798

"An important health issue for these women involves the risk of being diagnosed with a second cancer. The second cancer could be a recurrence of the initial cancer in the same breast (ipsilateral recurrence), a new cancer in the same breast (ipsilateral second primary cancer) or a new cancer in contralateral breast [asynchronous contralateral breast cancer (CBC)]. CBC accounts for about 50% of all secondary cancers diagnosed among patients with primary breast cancer (3)."

This does not mean that your Mom has a 50% chance of developing CBC. It means that of all the second cancers that are identified, 50% are CBC.

I also found this interesting article: "Contralateral Second Breast Cancers: Prediction and Prevention" (2010)

http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/102/7/444.f...

"The risk of a breast cancer survivor developing a second breast cancer is much higher than the risk of a comparable healthy woman developing a first breast cancer. For example, a healthy 55-year-old woman has about a 2.5% chance of developing invasive cancer in a given breast over the next 15 years, whereas a 55-year-old breast cancer survivor has a 10%–15% chance of developing invasive cancer in the contralateral breast over the next 15 years. Only a small component of this disturbingly large risk of a second breast cancer is treatment related: If anything, some chemotherapy regimens may reduce the rate of second breast cancers (6), and the comparatively low and inhomogeneous dose of scattered or leakage radiation to the contralateral breast during radiotherapy (7) results in only a small increase in the risk of contralateral breast cancer (5,8–10)."

I was also diagnosed in 2011 with what turned out to be stage III after my pathology following a unilateral mastectomy in January. We threw everything we could at it - chemotherapy, radiation, and hormonal therapy - but I did not choose to have my healthy breast removed.

I sincerely hope that your mom has a cyst.

Take care.

Diana

pp729

Thanks so much for your replies and assurances that the US is the right next step.  She's off on a trip out West with a friend now and having a wonderful time -- and that's what's important.  For now, I will just breathe.