Biopsy on my other breast after cancer

omo

I’m worried, I had a mammogram, and then an ultrasound, now a stereotactic biopsy.i had cancer on my other breast 15 years ago

I’m frightened it’s back aga

Ingerp

Well--after 15 years it's not back, it would be a new primary. These things happen. Try to stay calm through this diagnostic period.

Beesie

I agree with Ingerp. After 15 years, and with this being in your other breast, if this is cancer, then it's a new primary. That might seem like an irrelevant difference but it's actually very important. A return of the cancer, a recurrence, would mean that the cancer has been there all along, all these years. But a new primary would be a cancer that developed relatively recently.

Whether we've had breast cancer in the past or not, as women, we are all at risk to develop breast cancer. In fact because we've been diagnosed before, our risk to be diagnosed again with a new primary breast cancer is actually higher than that of the average woman. And like all women, our risk to develop breast cancer increases as we get older - our 60s and 70s are our highest risk years. Even women who've had a BMX still have a small risk to develop a new primary because there is always a bit of breast tissue left after a MX.

Hopefully this is a false alarm. 80% of biopsies are benign, and this is true even if you've had breast cancer before. If this is breast cancer, hopefully it's a small, early stage diagnosis. Looking back, I see that you had DCIS last time. With luck - if you are diagnosed again - it will be DCIS again.

Good luck! Fingers crossed for you!

omo

Thank you both for your responses, I’m just jittery and of course time runs slowly

Tmh0921

Omo

I’ve had several benign biopsies on both my BC and non-BC breasts since my original diagnosis. Even us cancer survivors are susceptible to benign changes

Hoping your biopsy turns out benign