worried about recurrence now want mastectomy

jen1

Hi ladies I was not sure what thread to post this but I want to talk with those who had a lumpectomy but who opt later to have mastectomy because of problems with lumpectomy breast and feat of recurrence..

surfette

I am in constant fear of recurrence and at this point I'd like to have everything removed, however from what I've heard that still does not guarantee you will not get a recurrence.

barbe1958

Jen, I had a double mast 7 years ago and since have had 6 biopsies! It makes it easier to feel lumps, that's for sure, but you still go through the same fear-cycle as before. I just had my most recent biopsy today and there was vascular activity which means the tumour has it's own blood supply. So, it doesn't look good. It's all just a crap shoot. You can argue with people who say there IS a cure for breast cancer because their "aunt died of a heart attack" not her breast cancer....sigh. We will always have that sword hanging over our heads of a recurrence, but you have to remember all those people who haven't even been diagnosed yet!

Just remember, having a mastectomy doesn't lower your risk of recurrence. Studies have shown it's pretty much the same. I had a double mast to avoid chemo and rads.

LM070917

I had a mascretomy but it doesn't mean you won't have chemo or rads.

My tumour was large so I went for it and still had chemo and rads. I've heard that local recurrance is more common in women who opt for lumpectomies because of the remaining breast issue, however that doesn't mean that you can't get a recurrance in a mascretomy scare,but I think it's less likely to happen especially, with rads which reduces local recurrance by a third. Basically if you have less breast issue, than the less likelihood of breast cancer cells remaining.

LM070917

I had a mascretomy but it doesn't mean you won't have chemo or rads.

My tumour was large so I went for it and still had chemo and rads. I've heard that local recurrance is more common in women who opt for lumpectomies because of the remaining breast issue, however that doesn't mean that you can't get a recurrance in a mascretomy scar,but I think it's less likely to happen especially, with rads which reduces local recurrance by a third. Basically if you have less breast issue, than the less likelihood of breast cancer cells remaining.

barbe1958

My tumour was on my chest wall right over my heart and my cardiologist thanked God that I didn't get rads! I also had ER+ slow-growing cancer which wouldn't react to chemo as chemo destroys fast growing cells, not slow growing ones. After my experience they came out with oncotype testing which helps people avoid chemo when it won't help.

I had "dirty margins" after my lumpectomy so went for the masts. If my margins were clean I probably would have done more systemically, but as I had nodes removed as well, I felt pretty good about my decision.