Pain in Armpit 9 years after Mastectomy
Hi All, I have an appointment with my oncologist on Friday. My armpit has been aching for a few weeks now. I actually had what I thought was an impinged shoulder back in June from swimming, so I thought the armpit pain was associated with that. Shoulder is better but armpit pain is not going away.
Also, I had a rash next to my mastectomy scar and had a punch biopsy done in April just to be safe. It came back negative for cancer. I'm wondering if anyone has heard much about injury to the area where cancer was removed causing metastasis from dormant cancer cells. I've read research saying that delayed reconstruction has a higher rate of recurrence of cancer. Apparently delayed injury is attracts cancer cells. Is this news or common knowledge?
I probably jumped the gun on getting that biopsy done and now I'm wondering if it re awakened the cancer.
Any others have similar situation or thoughts?
Thanks!
Comments
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Cancer cells grow in an inflammatory environment hence the theory of injury causing recurrence. Inflammation helps tissue heal so if cancer recurs as a result something in the healing process has gone wrong. Inflammation can be caused by other things such as illness, allergy and autoimmune responses so while it rarely happens theoretically recurrence is a possibility. Dormant cells usually hide in bone marrow, lymph nodes, liver, lungs and brain so while they would probably not be at the site of the punch biopsy they can travel elsewhere via the circulatory or lymphatic system. There is really no way of tracing the cause of a recurrence.
Armpit pain could be caused by many different things so it’s a good idea to get a doctor’s opinion. Hopefully yours will be something easy to treat.
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