Is it necessary to remove the entire breast in case of cancer?

Question

Hi doctor,

My mother-in-law got operated for a breast lump about 15 days. We sent that lump to the clinic for further testing and found that the lump had cancer cells. Before she was 13 years old, she was operated on for the same reason in the same breast, but that time it was a normal lump.

Now, we did a PET CT scan after 8 days of operation, and no infection was found. Do we still need to remove her entire breast and proceed with chemotherapy?

Kindly help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I could not find the hormone status and HER2 report. Is it done and awaited?

The decision to undergo chemotherapy is greatly influenced by those reports.

Moreover, the margin seems to be positive, and this may need a revision surgery. The pathologist and surgeon need to discuss.

Revert back with the reports to a medical oncologist online.

Thank you.

Answer 2

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

Firstly, since the margin is positive, your surgeon is telling to remove the whole breast. It is a justifiable step if breast size is small and cosmetically appealing result will not be there if breast conserving surgery is done.

Secondly, ER and HER2 can be done on your current tissue samples. This is a must step before anything can be said about the chemotherapy.

She is fairly in early disease and may not require chemotherapy if things turn out favorably in ER and HER2 report.

As for your main question that whether the surgery is required or not, I will suggest to go ahead with surgery. This surgery that is the removal of whole breast or part of it is based on the breast size and the desire of woman to preserve her breast. It is highly recommended to utilize the service of the breast oncology surgeon.

For further information consult a medical oncologist online.