Wife just diagnosed with re-ocurrence.

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Medvetz63
Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
edited June 2014 in Just Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastasis
Wife just diagnosed with re-ocurrence.
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  • Medvetz63
    Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
    edited May 2012

    My wife was diagnosed with stage II leaning towards III in April 2010 (I posted about it on this board back then). She did neoadjuvant chemo and then had a lumpectomy in November 2010. All was fine in her check up until this past month she had some hardness in the right breast, which was the original site of the cancer. She experienced this in December 2011 and her doctor biopsied the breast, and it turned out to be scar tissue. When it happened again this month they assumed it'd be the same thing but it came back as cancer, but much smaller than it was two years ago.

    She has to undergo some tests to be sure it has not returned in other parts of the body, and then the doctor said she'll have to go back through chemo again, and the doctor recommends neoadjuvant chemo again like the first time. The first time the tumor was 5 centimeters and the neoadjuvant was to shrink it, but since it was caught early this time I don't understand why they'd recommend it again.

    From what I've read about this I've gathered the following:

    If a recurrence does happen, the best case scenario is that it reoccur in the same breast. As long as it's just in the breast and no where else, it's like being back to square one as far as treatment goes, with the survival rates being the same as the first time, and with the tumor being much smaller than before, the stage would be stage I.

    Is that basically correct? Any advice would be appreciated. As more info comes in, I'll post it here.

    My Wife's doctor seems very good, so I'm glad about that. 

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  • chrissyb
    chrissyb Member Posts: 16,818
    edited May 2012

    Hi Medvets, sorry you need to be here once again and really sorry that your wife has had a recurrence.

    My understanding of the recurrence is as you stated, providing it has not travelled outside the breast it is looked at as if it were a new diagnosis.  I am no doctor but that is my understanding.  

    I truly hope that your wife does well with her treatment, whatever that is.

    Love n hugs.  Chrissy 

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  • allisontom911
    allisontom911 Member Posts: 425
    edited May 2012

    Hi Medvetz,

    I am going thru the same thing right now. Where are you all located? I have not met with the doctor yet as I just got the news about 2hours ago. I had a double mastectomy and it is in my axilla/underarm right now which I had before too. I am hoping this is my case as well. We should keep in touch and follow along with each other.

    I just turned 40, I was first diagnosed at 37 when my son was 6 weeks old. He is not 2 1/2 and running wild!

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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited May 2012
    Local recurrence does happen, and a bit more frequently with lumpectomy. If the recurrence is local (not distant/mets) then you are correct, her prognosis is the same as before. I did think though that she would now have to have a mastectomy since she already did radiation. I don't believe they can do radiation & lumpectomy again. Something to ask her doctor.
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  • glostagirl
    glostagirl Member Posts: 388
    edited May 2012

    I had a similar experience, the recurrence only 1 year from my first DX.  My onc. termed it a true local recurrence which meant it was in the same breast, very close to my lumpectomy site and had the same pathology as the first.  If the pathology was different it would be termed a new primary.  

    My treatment was mastectomy and additional chemo.  No rads as I'd had it the first time and you can't have it in the same area twice.  I also had bone, brain and full body PET scans to determine if it had spread, it had not.  This was in 2009, I'm still here.

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  • Medvetz63
    Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
    edited May 2012

    Allisontom9,

    We are in Palm Beach County, Florida. My wife goes to the Breast Cancer Center in JFK Hospital in Atlantis, FL. The doctor who heads the center, Dr. Beth Ann Lesnikoski, is my wife's physician who directly treats her. This doctor will take people regardless of their having or not having insurance. She's a great, caring person. I have insurance, thank God.

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  • allisontom911
    allisontom911 Member Posts: 425
    edited May 2012

    I am sending good thoughts your way. I am anxious to get my scans to know if this is local or mets.

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  • Medvetz63
    Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
    edited May 2012

    Allisontom9, thank you very much and I'm sending the same to you. My wife is getting ready to have the tests (PET and MRI) to see if she has METs also. I'll keep you posted. I hope your and my wife's tests (and everyone elses) come back clean. It's depressing beyond what words can describe to deal with this. Just when some normalcy in our lives was or seemed to have been achieved we're back in it all again.

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  • Medvetz63
    Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
    edited May 2012

    My wife had an MRI of the abdomen and chest today, and Thursday she'll have a bone scan and then get the results either Friday (hopefully) or at the start of next week.



    She was told that the present tumor

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  • Medvetz63
    Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
    edited May 2012

    My wife had an MRI of the abdomen and chest today, and Thursday she'll have a bone scan and then get the results either Friday (hopefully) or at the start of next week.



    She was told that the present recurrent tumor is much smaller than the first one was (that one was five centimeters) and that because of that the chemotherapy this time will be milder than it was two years ago, which I take it to mean that they won't give her adriamycin (Red Devil). I thought adriamycin is given no matter what the size of the tumor is due to it's power.

    Also, I wonder if the doctors were negligent in doing a lumpectomy rather than a radical mastectomy, which is what my wife wanted to begin with. My wife is BRCA negative, but an older sister died of BC at age 36, and her mother had ovarian cancer years ago which she managed to beat.











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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited May 2012

    Medvetz if that tumor was there 2 years ago it probably was microscopic. There was no way they doctors could have known it was there. But it sounds like a recurrence not a new cancer. This can happen when a cell might bet left behind, usually on the scar. Not uncommon with lumpectomy, that's why they do radiation. I don't believe your wife's family history really played a part in this recurrence.

    BTW I didn't get the Red Devil. There are lots of different chemos.

    Wish your wife the best. 

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  • Medvetz63
    Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
    edited May 2012

    I sent my wife's BC surgeon a text message last night asking her if she had a rough idea as to what stage my wife's recurrence might be. This morning she responded with the following that I have copied and pasted below:









    " The size is hard to determine but the tumor has spread into the skin. This looks like a stage III recurrence, but we will know better after imaging is complete."



    I am really worried now. How could it have spread into the skin when my wife was going in for all her scheduled check-ups? Some websites say that a spread to the skin is metastasis, while others say it's only metastasis if it's in skin that's far from the breast.



    Some sites say that most recurrences are local and rarely involve metastasis while other sites say that most recurrences are NOT local and DO involve distant metastasis



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  • allisontom911
    allisontom911 Member Posts: 425
    edited May 2012

    I am having the same problem with getting a correct answer because technically the surgeon is not the oncologist so he can not give the accurate information. Some say I am stage IV other do not. I have my lymphnodes in the mediastinum positive of cancer...so I see my MO on Tuesday next week to have answers.

    When will your wife see her MO?

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  • Medvetz63
    Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
    edited May 2012

    Allison,

    My wife had all her scans this week (Monday and yesterday) so now we're waiting to be called and told the results. Maybe, hopefully, it'll be today. It's 6:08am as I write this so I hope sometime today we'll find out, otherwise it'll be a long three day weekend since this Monday is Memorial Day.

    I hope the doctors who think you might be Stage IV are wrong. Hopefully the nodes are either clear or they're close enough to the effected breast to be considered local or regional rather than distant. This is a nightmare. I can't sleep right, don't feel like eating, I'm just filled with worry and depression. This forum is a blessing, a lot of great people here who offer hope and great advice.  

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  • Medvetz63
    Medvetz63 Member Posts: 17
    edited May 2012

    My wife's test results came back today and THEY'RE ALL CLEAR.

    The cancer is just in the breast, thank God. On Monday she'll have the chemo port put back in and then she'll start chemo very soon after.

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  • allisontom911
    allisontom911 Member Posts: 425
    edited May 2012

    I am so thrilled that your wife's scans were all clear. What a happy time. Funny you can say that even with having cancer. I see my onc on tuesday at 910am so I am very anxious to see what he says. I was really hoping this would be a regional but I will find out soon enough.

    I got my port 3 days ago on Thursday so I am ready to go for whatever treatment they throw at me.

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