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Topic: chest wall recurrence?

Forum: Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY —

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Intro medically reviewed by: Brian Wojciechowski, M.D.
Last review date: November 22, 2020

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Posted on: Jun 29, 2007 09:41AM

daisybell wrote:

How do you know if you have a chest wall recurrence? I had a mastectomy with an unclean margin. Had a re-excision that did not find any additional tumor. Finished rads about 2 months ago and the scar from the re-excision has a lump. Is it scar tissue that has become more prominent after rads? I am going for an MRI next week, don't know if this is the best test.

Sue

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Jun 29, 2007 10:04AM RLA13 wrote:

I had a chest wall recurrence in the scar line....onc put it off to scar tissue....I wish I had been more vigilant like you. I let it grow and the rest is history....but I did have a biopsy on it, which is a definitive way to tell!

I pray you just have scar tissue...
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Jun 29, 2007 10:24AM daisybell wrote:

Robyn

Did it feel like a lump? The surgeon didn't really want to cut me open again as I also have lymphedema.

Sue
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Jul 1, 2007 12:15AM kimmytoo wrote:

I have lymphedema and my chest wall recurrence was diagnosed with a needle biopsy. The pathology from the re-excision didn't even show the cancer until the surgeon sent it back to be reanalyzed (it was really small and encased in scar tissue). The needle biopsy didn't even make my lymphedema in my chest flare up actually... I know some people are against needle biopsies because they can miss the actual tumor, but they've worked out for me...

Mine didn't feel like a lump really, it was just a hard area in the incision and it felt kinda irregular and "sharp". It had a little pucker in the skin over it. The places were only 1mm and 3mm (and there was lots of scar tissue around them -- the actual cancer stuff was very, very small...)

I will be praying that its scar tissue!!!
Dx 8/25/2003, IDC, 2cm, Stage IV, Grade 2, 12/20 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-
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Jul 1, 2007 08:07AM RLA13 wrote:

Hi again,

My started out as a very very small lump....then it grew and it was moveable and not that hard, so the doc still thought it was something else.....the SC node in my next was also enlarged, so we had a few indications that it was going to be cancerous.
Let us know.

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