surgery before chemo IBC stage 4

bjcharles40

When I was DX with IBC it was recurrence from 2013 where I had invasive lobular carcinoma stage 1, I had lumpectomy and radiation. In 2016 my breast cancer went from invasive lobular carcinoma to metastatic stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. I had skin that was very ugly with my IBC and my oncologist (whom I am convinced now is not experienced with IBC) decided to do my mastectomy first so my skin would not crack, open or start oozing. I have read it is important to do chemo first to make sure all IBC is removed from chest area. When my mastectomy was done the surgeon had to scrape and scrape my chest wall to remove all of the cancer, Now after chemo I have areas on my chest that I am concerned about that my Onco says she is not impressed with. My question is how likely is it that since surgery was done first is there that I would have local recurrence in my chest wall? My skin is red and I have found a lump that she thinks may be muscle but all that was removed in surgery. I have a MRI of chest wall the 4th of Oct. but I am wondering if my fears are unfounded.

Moderators

Hi bj and welcome to Breastcancer.org,

We're so sorry that you're here, worrying about this. We hope someone will be by shortly to weigh in with their thoughts.

In the meantime, you may also want to post in the Stage IV ONLY forum to see if anyone there has advice.

We hope this helps, and that you get answers soon!

Thanks for posting and we look forward to hearing more from you.

--The Mods