2nd dx, same side but different?

Hi Marj, sorry you're on round #2, it sux.  I've had 3 entirely different BC's - how freaky is that! 

#1 IDC TN AC & Rads Stage IIb Lump/Re-ex/Aux Dissect  Rt side

4.5 years

#2 DCIS/IDC Stage 1 Lump/Re-ex/Aux Dissect Rads & 15 mths tamoxifen Lt side

8 years

#3 DCIS/IDC Stage 1 Lt side   BMX/DIEP no longer surgically viable, margins not clear no further TX

Haven't bothered with BCRA, I already know I'm a petrie dish for BC.  Not going to worry about it. I'll dance with NED while he'll dance with me and deal with it again if it comes back.  If I follow the pattern it will be at least 16 years until I have to face it!

Edited to add I'm now almost 15 years out from #1.

Hi MED:  First time ER/PR + very much so. Had MX.   Did TX 2 years then Aromison 3 years.  that was 10 years ago.  last year, exact same place just under the skin started to grow.  I was Dx with Triple negative..Had surgery, chemo and radiation.  My implant held up well through radiation even though it is 10 years old..I was told this does in fact happen.....

PS: yes, I was negative for BRCA

I'm BRCA 1/2 negative and had DCIS and IDC that was highly ER/PR+ in 2009, stage 1, for which I had lumpectomy and radiation.  Two years later (this year), a mammogram found DCIS in the same breast and it turned out to be ER/PR-.  I don't know if it was TN, though, as they didn't check for HER2 status because it was "just" DCIS.  I had a bilateral mast this time around.

I asked my oncologist if this was considered a recurrence or a new primary, and he referred to as recurrent DCIS.  He said it's possible that this ER/PR- DCIS was there even when I was first diagnosed, and that it was basically a failure of the radiation to get it all.  Evidently breast cancers can be quite heterogeneous, with ER/PR+ and ER/PR- negative lesions simultaneously existing even on the same side.  In my case, we'll never know if this recurrent DCIS was there in 2009 or appeared later, as they never checked the original DCIS for hormone status (they focus just on the IDC if it's present, evidently). 

I find I don't know how to think of this new and different cancer this time around, or what to think about the ER/PR status being differently.  Either way, though, it worries me that it came back in 2 years, even as I'm grateful that it wasn't invasive this time.

I'm doing well physically, probably because I didn't do any reconstruction (may do it later, not sure) and am fairly young (44) and otherwise very healthy.  As long as I do the rehab exercises and get enough rest, I feel good. I'm now about 7 weeks out from my BMX.

Emotionally, I think I'm more afraid of the cancer now, even though my oncologist says my prognosis is unchanged.  Still, he's ordered a bone scan and CT scan for next week, to confirm for both of us that I'm still "cancer-free," and now I'm all nervous about what those could show.  I once heard someone on these boards use the term "scanxiety," and that's exactly what I've got going right now!

One thing I meant to mention initially:  even though I tested negative for BRCA, I have a very strong family history.  Mom, maternal aunt, maternal grandmother, and maternal great-aunt all died of BC.  So even with my low-ish Oncotype score (18) and all the other ways they say my cancer is low-risk for recurrence/mets, I struggle with the plain fact of my family history.  My mom's pathology report looks eerily similar to mine, and she died 5 years later. 

Hope you heal up well from your BMX -- the two big corners I remember turning were getting the drains out and the 4 week mark.  May yours go even better!

I too have just been diagnosed with 2nd bc in the same breast, I had 1st bc 16 yrs. ago had lumpectomy, radiation and chemo.. I just had bx 5 weeks ago with diep surgery. I do not want to go thru this again, it just sucks.. I am now on hormone therapy, I am wondering why my onc. never ordered an MRI or a pet scan, do you think this is something I should insist on?

My original Dx was ILC in 1994, MRM no rads, recurred in 2009 in axilla/chestwall, not even in lymph node but near/invading pectoral muscle.  The original pathology of the needle biopsy in 9/2009 was ductal.  I thought that couldn't be right but later had the slides re-read at a university; they said it was ILC.  Final pathology after wide local excision was ILC.

I guess my point is that you could get a second pathology opinion since there is a difference.

Hope you don't mind if I jump in with a question! I have been diagnosed a second time with tripe negative in opposite breast, with mammary nodes involved. One oncologist suggested 12 weekly treatment of abraxane after surgery and another wants to do  AC since it seemed to work the firstime. Weird thing is, he says he administers it in the hopsital very slowly over a 24 hour period to reduce all the heart complications and monitors the heart the whole time. I have never heard of doing it this way, but he said MD Anderson, does this quite often. Oh, and it is dose dense with 6 rounds! Help! I need to make some major decisions and I feel one onc. is not aggressive enough and the other may be too aggressive? I had AC followed by taxol last time. The AC onc said I can still have more AC, he has all my records from the last time, so he know how much I had.