Surgery for secondary - anyone been offered mastectomy with secondary?

Hi, I’m sorry to read of your diagnosis. I have a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer a year after me, in 2022. She had chemo first, and her scan revealed something on one of her lungs. They told her that they couldn’t be sure if it was a secondary, but they would monitor it. Roll on a couple of months, and a follow up scan revealed that the lesion on her lung was growing. She had a mastectomy and lymph node removal, and was booked in for lung surgery too. The lung surgery revealed afterwards that it was a secondary. Since then, she has been on Anastrazole, and she has regular scans. She has no evidence of disease, but is still classed as stage 4. I’m not sure what you can, or should make of this, but I would say that she does not regret the mastectomy. X 

Thank you Cloudier.  That’s very helpful x

Hi Bonnie2,

Sorry I just saw this.

I was diagnosed with invasive ductal bc (3 tumours in my right breast - largest 5cms) in November 2023 with a secondary in my pelvis and spread to my lymph nodes and supraclavicular nodes.  I had 6 rounds of chemotherapy after which there was no sign of active cancer.

7 months later a PET scan revealed that the tumour in the breast showed signs of activity again so I was offered a mastectomy (which I chose to turn in to a bilateral mastectomy due to my size (36 K)) This was followed by 16 days of radiotherapy. A PET scan after this again showed complete resolution.

Almost a year later scans are still showing no sign of active cancer. 

Having my breasts removed doesn't completely stop the fear of the cancer return at this site but it certainly makes that the last of my worries and I hope if anything does return to the area it will hopefully now be much, much easier to spot.

Also I have a great new body which after decades of struggling to find clothes that look good on me I now can't wait to go shopping! 

I hope this helps. Good luck on your journey xxxx