2nd skin removal surgery after initial surgery

Rooster57

Hello fellow IBCers:

Got pathology results back from 1st additional skin removal surgery. Cancer cells still in lymphatic vessel and they want to now go in a 2nd time to remove about 2 inches more skin, remove enhancer and then continue on with radiation after recovery. I had 4 treatments of cytoxin and red devil, then 12 weeks of paclitaxol (spelling???) chemotherapy before surgery. Is this so unusual with this type of cancer since it did get into my skin? Anyone else have more than 1 surgery after the initial mastectomy? Please answer if you want.

Thanks so much.

sbelizabeth

Hi, Rooster. I had neoadjuvant chemo, followed by mastectomy, followed by rads and more chemo. The red spot of skin on my breast still had active dermal lymphatic invasion on pathology, although margins were OK. If your margins still show tumor emboli, they probably want to excise as much of the affected skin as possible. Then radiation has less to "mop up." Without the tumor cells in the skin, the tumor burden is lower and there's less of a risk of recurrence.

Is your pathology ER+? The newest recommendations are to follow surgery/rads with another chemo drug, xeloda. Ask your onc about it.