Pain in breast 10 months after breast surgery

Hi Blue69,

Thank you for getting in touch with us and welcome to our online community.  I hope you find it a helpful and supportive place.  My name is Adrienne and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialists on the Macmillan Support Line.

I’m so sorry to hear about this recent and sudden pain you’ve been experiencing around the scar tissue and near the armpit.  It’s important that you have any new, changing or worsening pain assessed by your healthcare team or GP.  Please don’t feel that you need to wait until your appointment in February to report this.  I would suggest giving your breast care nurse a call today to report this sudden pain, so they can assess you properly. 

It's completely understandable that you would be worried about the cancer coming back.  Nearly everyone who has been treated for cancer has this worry.  Every ache or pain can frighten you, especially as the pain you are experiencing is in the breast that was treated.  Most breast cancers don’t come back after treatment but it’s important that you have any new pain checked out. 

It’s not unusual to still have pain, even months after surgery and radiotherapy, especially when all of the axillary lymph nodes have been removed.  There is a large nerve called the intercostobrachial nerve (ICBN) that runs from your armpit to the upper, inside part of your arm.  When this is damaged during surgery or even during radiotherapy, it can cause nerve pain (neuropathic pain).  This type of pain is usually described as ‘stabbing, burning, shooting, tingling or numbness’.  It usually improves with time but everyone is individual in how long it takes to heal from treatment. 

There also could be other reasons for the pain you are experiencing but the most important thing is that you get in touch with your healthcare team or GP so they can assess you properly.

If you think it would be helpful to talk this through in more detail then please do give us a call on 0808 808 0000.  It sometimes helps to go over things and gives you the opportunity to ask questions.  We are here from 8am to 8pm every day.

I hope this was helpful. 

Take care and best wishes,

Adrienne (Cancer Information Nurse Specialist)

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email. 

Ref: AMc/AC