MRI before prophylactic mastectomy?

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windingshores
windingshores Member Posts: 704
edited April 2015 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

One hospital does an MRI of the "good" breast to make sure there is no cancer, or, alternatively, does a SNB, because there will never be a chance to find the sentinal nodes once the breast is gone. So if cancer is found (2% chance I am told, but...) then many nodes will need to go.

Another hospital, the one I used for my first mastectomy, does not do this because the risk of cancer in the "contralateral" breast is so low.

Any advice from those who had a BMX or two separate UMX's?

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  • kamm
    kamm Member Posts: 140
    edited April 2015

    I had the MRI done on the unaffected side as opposed to her doing a sentinel node. It's not 100% but it my opinion it's better than setting yourself up for potential lymphedema and knowing that they didn't see anything made me feel more secure. Of course the chance was low but I felt it was a harmless way to get some peace of mind before the mastectomy.

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