Follow up testing after BC in Australia

LM070917

Hey ladies,

I live in Australia and got diagnosed late last year. I've been through surgery, chemo and now rads and hormone therapy.

My oncologist has advised that my follow up testing will be yearly mammograms and 6 month ultrasounds. I asked about a CT scan for 6 months when I'm out of rads, however my oncologist was very adamant that no one gets CT scans once treatment is completed for breast cancer, unless you have any symptoms.

From this website this seems very different from our American sisters, who appear to get yearly ct scans. I find it quite concerning, as these tests can find abnormalities early on and I've often read that if the cancer does metastsize to the lungs or liver symptoms tend to be at a later stage. Surely it's better to be safe than sorry. Am I missing something?....

Trisha-Anne

Hello Lottemarine

I had my first dx in 2010 and had both IDC and ILC. The IDC was triple positive. I didn't have any CT scans in the following five years, except when there was something that needed to be looked at. Here in Australia the standard of care is yearly mammograms and u/s they don't like to subject us to too much radiation that isn't necessary - hence the no CTs unless following up specific symptoms. Don't worry about it, if you have symptoms, then get them checked. The thinking is that usually any recurrences or spread will be found with symptoms and doing regular scans won't find them earlier.

I'd had an MRI in March last year instead of a mammo or u/s and it was completely clear. I found the new lump in my right breast in early November and it was already 2.5cm with it's own blood supply in that time, so the scanning only gave me a false sense of security.

This lump was triple negative and I had a right mx and doing chemo at the moment.

Please join our Australian Sisters thread, it's much more active and you'll get support from all the wonderful girls here in Oz.

Where in Australia are you?

Trish

xoxo

Lalala1

I had a similar experience with the MRI scanning when I was initially diagnosed. The initial mammogram showed nothing at all. This was followed 5 minutes later by an ultrasound, that showed 2 tumours, then I had an MRI that showed up 3 tumours. However, when they did the lumpectomy they found 8 tumours and the margins were not clear. My surgeon suggested a mastectomy as so much did not show on the MRI. Luckily i followed her advice and had a bilateral mastectomy, where they found another tumour and also some DCIS. In the end the MRI only showed 40% of the breast cancer.