Rein vision

Nancdancer

I had bilateral lumpectomy and sentinel node removal on 4/22, doctor called and said right margin came back negative lymph node came back negative but left margin came back positive. Does this mean that the actual size they thought it was pre surgery is not the same as post surgery? If anyone can explain I would appreciate it, thanks.

Topic should be reincision

MsPharoah

Nancdancer, this means that the cancer they removed from your left breast was not completely removed, and they will need to go back and take more tissue until they have negative margins, meaning no cancer found at the edge of the tumor. About 20% of breast cancer surgeries require re-excision so it does happen. I'm sorry that you will need to have more surgery.

knittingPT

Think of "margins" as a halo around the tumor. When they cut the tumor out, they look at the edges of the tissue sample. The pathologist is looking for no cancer at the edge of the removed sample. If the margins are "negative" it means they do not see cancer at the edge. Usually they will give an actual distance (i.e. 5 mm margin means there are 5 mm of healthy, non-cancerous cells between the edge of the removed tissue and any cancerous cells). If the margins are "positive" it means that there is cancer all the way to the edge of the sample and that there is likely a little bit left inside of you. Surgeons are very different as to how much of of a negative margin they want. Some want 5 mm, some want 2 mm, and some want something different.