BreastCancers: I had breast cancer,in my left breast, treated with a lumpectomy and radiation and sent home

I had breast cancer,in my left breast, treated with a lumpectomy and radiation and sent home.?
I was not given Tamoxifin or any preventative drug. 6 months later I got cancer ,a more aggressive cancer in my left breast. My doc acted shocked. I had a lumpectomy, radiation and chemo. Then I was given Femara. Did my doc follow procedures?
Cancer - 4 Answers
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1 :
Get a copy of your original pathology reports. Your surgeon should have done receptors testing. This determines if your original cancer was a result of being estrogen/progesterone positive or negative, or her2neu positive or negative. Her2neu is a protein in the body, and that is generally a more agressive cancer. You could also have been triple negative, like I was. That meant that your tumor was basically a nasty chunk of bad luck, and not caused by the horomones in your body at all. So, judging from your original treatment, it sounds like you were treated as a triple negative, or even a very early stage of cancer. I wonder if it was an early stage cancer, because triple negatives generally have an amazing response to chemo, which is fantastic, since we don't have any after-treatment. Now, some other thoughts.....first, you mention that the second cancer was more aggressive. Do you say that as far as the stage, the grade, or the size of the tumor? Second, Femara is a er+ after-care treatment. Your second cancer was estrogen positive. Third, I am also wondering the possibility of not having had clear margins from the first lumpectomy. If there were not clear margins, that meant that some of the tumor remained in the tissue. Generally if that is the case, a re-excision is done to obtain clear margins. This can be determined from the path report from your surgery. So, as far as whether or not procedure was followed can't be determined (IMHO) unless we know more about the original cancer. If you have concerns about the quality of care you received, you do have the right to switch doctors. This is your health, don't be shy about being proactive.
2 :
Tamoxifen is only given for hormone-positive cancers. So your pathology report probably indicated hormone-receptor negative cancer. If so, this is often considered a more aggressive cancer, and recurrence rates are somewhat higher. So it wouldn't be unheard of for you to get a recurrence. Do you have a copy of the original pathology report? If not, ask your oncologist for a copy. That would be an important clue. It sounds as if Femara is given for hormone positive cancers. So if the current incident is hormone-positive, it is either a) a new cancer, or b) someone messed up on your original pathology or treatment plan.
3 :
You do not give sufficient details Due to possible side effects and limited long-term benefit, chemotherapy is not automatically recommended to every patient, but only to some patients. Sometimes genetic tests attempt to estimate the usefulness of the chemotherapy. Even so, it helps only about 5% of the patients who take it. It is misfortunate that your cancer reapeared so fast - and this shocked your doc, however, it does not mean that there was any malpractice. I hope that this time the cancer is gone for good.
4 :
I'm surprised you were treated with radiation twice on the same breast. My understanding is that once an area is treated with radiation it cannot be done again safely. Also, from what I know of friends and an aunt who have had a recurrence of breast cancer in the same breast, once a lumpectomy is done it is usually recommended that a full mastectomy be done instead of a second lumpectomy. My breast surgeon gave me a copy of my pathology report since the lab only keeps the reports for 10 years and one never knows when one may need this information in the future.

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Saturday, December 8, 2012

I had breast cancer,in my left breast, treated with a lumpectomy and radiation and sent home