Recurrence after mastectomy

I remember reading that ILC is more likely to show up in the other breast. I'm sorry I can't remember the source. Wishing you the best.

The only statistic I heard is that 1/3rd of ILC Dx's are in both breasts. I had one ILC tumor on left did single mast.

ILC was in both my breasts (not seen in "healthy" breast on MRI); HOWEVER, none of my breast cancer team at Dana Farber recommended BMX -- it was a personal choice based on inability of scans to show cancer in my other breast and feelings that I had. They all said "not medically necessary". Although, afterwards congratulated me on a good decision. They found cancer and pre-cancerous lesions in my healthy breast... They never mentioned statistics regarding bilateral tendencies? I had no family history or unusual risk factors... I think it's just a personal decision what's going to make you feel the most confident? Whatever adjuvant therapy plan that you choose should deal with any rogue cancer cells after your surgery?

Here's my history. Hope it helps. was diagnosed with stage 1 ILC this year after I had a prophylactic mastectomy of my right breast. At the same time, I had a mastectomy to remove what they thought was a 3 cm lesion in my left beast (nipple to chest wall). Images of the left (us, 3D Mammo and MRI were showing a large invasive cancer but 2 biopsies showed high grade DCIS and LCIS, hyperplasia, sclerosis, you name it). So they didn't know what we were dealing with. Final answer would have to come after surgery.

I had had extremely dense breasts with stable calcifications (BiRad 4). The 3D Mammo showed nothing on the right side, but the MRI showed a lesion which the BS was not worried about at all--a fibroadenoma, they said. Because my Mom passed away from recurring, two primary metastatic breast cancers, I opted for prophylactic on the right.

Post surgery, the findings on the left were 6 cm of grade 3 DCIS, LCIS and cancerization of the lobules, embedded in a large sclerotic (benign) lesion, less than 1 mm margin in at least 2 spots, suspicion of micro invasion, isolated tumor cells in 1 of 3 nodes (highly ER positive; PR 10%; HER 2 -ve).

What's more relevant to your question, on the right side they discovered a 0.9 mm Grade 2 ILC, highly ER and PR +ve, HER2 negative. Followed up with axillary dissection on right side: 0/14 nodes. Yay! I was smart (in decision) AND incredibly lucky. I've seen way too many stories of stage 3 and stage 4 ILCs at original diagnosis. Oh I had also had a PET-CT scan no contrast, and there was mild uptake in left side but not on right ILC side.

Because Oncotype scores were in the low spectrum on both sides, no radiation or chemo were recommended (1 RO, 3 MO opinions). Sorry this is so long

Good luck!