Metastatic breast cancer

Kazzurni - Whether or not to have a mastectomy is a complicated question that you can delay answering for a while. Surgery, even in the early stages, is now done after systemic therapy to reduce the tumor size. Since some kind of systemic therapy is always the first treatment for stage IV cancer, go ahead and do the prescribed systemic therapy and then take your time researching the pros and cons of removing the primary tumor by mastectomy.

I am 15 months into this and at the point where mastectomy might make sense. I've decided to first research treating the remains of the primary tumor with heat (hyperthermia). It less invasive an has the potential to trigger an immune response.

Aggressive treatment of the primary site is usually only considered when you oligometastatic disease ... no more than a few small tumors in one organ. Since you presented with tumors in your liver and lungs and lymph nodes, you are not going to be considered oligometastatic. However, mastectomy still may come up as an option if you have a full reponse to systemic treatment. If the systemic treatment wipes out all your mets for a while, it may be something to consider.

I had a few small tumors in my liver and possibly a tumor in my sternum. I meet some people's definitions of oligometastatic, but not all. It's a squirrely term. In my case, systemic treatment appears to have controlled all the mets. The primary tumors are there, but dormant. Some people would do the mastectomy in my case, but it's a rough procedure. I'd have to stop taking Ibrance because it slows healing. I'm leaning towards a local treatment of the remaining primary tumors that is less invasive.

There is a lot to process when you are first hit with this diagnosis, so inhale, exhale and put this question on the back burner while your deal with the first line systemic treatment. When you have time, peruse these threads:

Oligometastatic Disease

Surgery for Stage IV

Welcome to our esteemed group. If you fill out your diagnosis and treatment history in your profile and make it public in settings, it gives us more context for your questions. MBC is complicated and the context is everything. Many extremely knowledgeable people on this forum, but they need to know your history to really help.

>Z<

I am very angry that they removed your breast without checking for metastasis. It's surprisingly common.

There is a lady in the UK on one of these threads who had her breast removed because they thought she was early stage. Then they found out she was metastatic so they are refusing to approve the reconstruction. They told her that she would not get a reconstruction because she was incurable. The lady has minimal bone mets. She may be incurable but she is, frankly, unlikely to die of cancer.

I found the thread. Check it out. The discussion answers your question at length but the short answer is that the mastectomy could help you even though you are stage IV. I would not regret it.

But were they were stupid to assume you were early stage. Yes they were. You might send a private message to cosmogirl, the lady who experienced the same thing and commiserate. It is wrong and there have to be a lot of feelings there. She will get it.

>Z<

Kazz - I agree. It's not about you. That's water under the bridge. It's about having a health care system that properly diagnoses cancer.

>Z<