I had a lumpectomy can I still have a mastectomy?

Hi Jostar, I didn’t exactly have your dilemma but had some discussions around mastectomy with the oncologist, after my lumpectomy. But before I go into that I just wanted to say, the breast clinics are open for business and if you feel you need to speak to them about it then please do phone them. It matters that you feel you’ve had sufficient treatment. I obviously can’t answer that but I’ll tell you what the oncologist said re my case. 

I don’t know how my cancer compares to yours but I had a 13mm lump of IDC. I had a lumpectomy (mastectomy wasn’t even mentioned), sentinel node sampling and wide local incision. Post op, the results were: nodes clear, clear margins, strongly ER positive. So that meant no need to remove any more nodes and the surgeon felt that he’d got the beast out with clear areas around it. On to oncology - could have chosen no more treatments but a better chance of non recurrence with radiotherapy (3 weeks at that time) and hormone therapy. So I started on Anastrozole and had the rads a month later. I asked whether mastectomy was an option  and he said it would be regarded as over treatment. And he also said that for my particular case (size, stage, grade, type), that a lumpectomy plus rads gave the same statistical outcome as a mastectomy without rads. The question is though, would I rather have had the option of mastectomy at the start. If I’m honest I don’t really know, my mind was in such a whirl I just went along with what they thought was the best plan. 

So for you, so much depends on your particular beast , and all the details re size etc. I really would suggest you contact the breast clinic to talk it through. A private consultation is also an option, I would have thought, but I’ve no idea how much it would cost or how easy it is to access all your hospital notes. 

I’m sure someone will pop on soon with a more informative response but in the meantime sending love and a big virtual hug. Hope you can get some answers soon, HFxx

Oh Happy Feet, thank you soooo much for replying. I'm a similar case to yours actually, my beast was 2cm and the rest is just the same scenario as yours. I know what you mean about over treatment though. I guess I should be grateful it was out completely and with clear margins.

Xxx