YOU CAN STILL GET BREAST CANCER WHEN YOUR BREASTS HAVE GONE

WOMEN who have had breast cancer can develop a new tumour years later in a different part of the same breast or in the other breast.

This is known as a second primary diagnosis – and the chances of surviving this, given conventional treatment, are about the same as for those suffering the disease for the first time. SECOND primary diagnosis is distinct from a local recurrence, which is when the some of the breast cancer cells from the initial tumour are ‘left behind’ and it comes back near the original site within a few years. SECONDARY breast cancer is another term, used to describe the disease that has spread to other parts of the body and is incurable. THE outlook for women with a second primary diagnosis is more optimistic: in most cases the cancer is curable.

Although a mastectomy after a first diagnosis reduces the risk of a second primary diagnosis, it is not necessary as it does not boost survival chances.

Women who have a lumpectomy followed by radiotherapy have just as good odds of a cure. HAVING a mastectomy does not eliminate the risk of local recurrence or secondary breast cancer.

‘Women also need to understand that once you’ve had breast cancer, studies have shown removing a healthy breast does not improve the chances of survival – it does not stop cancer coming back elsewhere in the body or in the mastectomy scar tissue,’ says consultant surgeon, blogger and author Liz O’Riordan, who has had breast cancer twice herself.

‘This is why it is important that women stay breast-aware.’ FOR women who have not had breast cancer, but have a strong genetic risk of the disease, a mastectomy will significantly lower the risk of developing a tumour.