Positive margins after MX- need for more surgery

BeemarCee

hello

I'm a BC daughter, my mom was diagnosed in December with what we thought was stage 0 DCIS. After her Mastectomy 2/24/16 we received pathology results that showed invasice DCIS that spread to 1 sentinel and 1/5 auxiliary lymphnodes. The tumor turned it to be over 6.5 cm ( not shown in MRI!!). Her surgeon was not able to get clear margins after the mastectomy. It sounds like my mom will need more surgery to get whatever is left. I don't understand what could be left! It sounds like this rarely happens. Making it all the more scary for my mom and us. She considered stage 2. Has anyone else gone through additional surgery post MX?

grandma3X

I had a MX in January and the tumor was also much bigger than expected. The margin under the nipple was positive, so I had to have the nipple/aureola complex removed. They did the surgery on Wed. this week, with just a local anesthetic and under light sedation (I talked to the anesthesiologist the whole time). It took about 45 minutes. After the MX in January, I have no feeling left in my breast so there was no pain, no need for pain meds even though they were offered, and I returned to work the next day. They will examine the tissue (which was all skin and nipple) and send a pathology report just as before. I think I had the option of having radiation instead, but this was very easy and is considered to be the safest way to remove the cancer.

Best wished for you mother. I hope she is doing well.

BeemarCee

My mom had her areola removed during the MX. there's is positive margin in the lateral and posterior area of her breast. Sounds like they need to remove more tissue from the underarm area.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Moderators

Here is a page you may want to read to understand surgical margins: surgical margins

We're really sorry that your mom has to go through more surgery! And sorry grandma3X that you had to as well.