TN breast cancer returned have questions

Brneyegrl6608

I am almost 4 years out from original TN diagnosis. I had a lump on my cancer side in September of 2020 that I had an ultrasound on and it was diagnosed as a sebaceous cyst. It grew a little so I had my dermatologist remove it. Turns out it’s TN breast cancer again. I’m waiting for a PET scan to see if it is anywhere else. I’m in absolute shock and so scared right now. I guess my question is what to expect? What questions should I be asking? Besides PET scan, should I be doing a brain MRI too? They will do genetic testing on my tumor so I will know what chemotherapies will work best. I just want to be prepared on what I should be asking at my appointment

moth

Hi, sorry you find yourself here. That really sucks, esp when you're so close to the 5 yr mark when the recurrence risk for tn supposedly goes down
I think you don't necessarily need brain scans unless you're symptomatic. I had one only because I enrolled in a trial and they wanted one - otherwise I wouldn't have had one.

I think my questions would be about staging & whether they consider this a localized recurrence (fingers crossed nothing else on the PET scan); whether they'd consider a wider excision + radiation as treatment; whether you qualify for immunotherapy + chemo. Immunotherapy (tecentriq, keytruda or trodelvy are essentially the best bet for triple neg if your tumor expresses PD-L1. This might be the test they're waiting for).

I think further than that would be getting ahead of yourself. You need to know your scan results and where they're staging you now as that will determine a lot of the decisions.

hang in there