Ductal carcinoma. Can surgery cause cancer to spread?

Can you tell us a little bit more about your situation? What kind of details do you have about the cancer, and about a proposed treatment plan? What kind of surgery has been suggested? Being newly diagnosed can be so stressful. I found things got easier for me as they moved along. I'm not sure of the exact answer to your question, but will investigate and you should get more responses here.

Do you have the details of your diagnosis? Grade? HR - or +? One or both breasts? Any architectural distortion noted?
I am assuming your diagnosis is DCIS, which is CONTAINED within the ducts, meaning it has not spread. When surgery is performed, clean margins is the goal, this helps minimize the chance of recurrence.
Have you met with your care team yet? Have you had any biopsies? MRI? US?

It can but rarely happens. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/treatment-types/surgery/risks-of-cancer-surgery.html
I assume that you already had biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. Your onco will discuss treatment plan with you. Once you have the treatment plan, you’ll feel much better. Breast cancer treatment has advanced greatly to give us better chance to survive and to prevent recurrence. Please come back to share your concerns/questions. I hope this forum will provide you with calmness and comfort as it did for me during my early days of diagnosis. Our mentors have gone through cancer treatment themselves and everyone here is generous in sharing experience. You’re are not alone. Hugs.

I recently was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. I underwent a lumpectomy and lymph node removal, sentinel and 2 others from left side of breast. I am 2 weeks post op and am having lots of swelling at the incision site and some pain. It is not red or hot to the touch and shows no sign of infection. The swelling is almost the size of a ping pong ball and is across the entire incision site. I have my 2-week post op tomorrow to have this checked out. Is this normal?

Hello, welcome to connect. I would say this is pretty common. Not exactly normal, but I hear about it a lot. I also had this, in my case and most of the ones I know about it is seroma. A build up of serum and blood where the body pushes this to a site of injury, in this case surgical. Mine took a little time but went away on its own, as the body slowly broke it down and reabsorbed it.
I have heard of folks getting a drain for this. I am glad you are seeing the doctor tomorrow.
How are you doing since your surgery?

Yes, Barbjean I am months out from my lumpectomy and I still have days when it swells.

I have very little info at this time, if anyone can give me a set of questions to ask that would be awesome. All I know is in my right breast they told me ductile carcinoma.

I have had the biopsy, and I go next Tue for the MRI and then next Fri to meet the surgeon, It would be great to have questions to ask I know nothing about this or all the acronyms and numbers being used.

Hi
I had dcis hormone positive her 2 negative Stage 0. I had a lump act to me.And they found a small break in the wall.So I had to have a sentinel node surgery also. I did ten days of radiation Double dose. Is finished in april twenty twenty four. My mammogram in the fall was cancer free. I did not do AI drugs. I wish you well and hope you have a good treatment plan

Are you getting your care/treatment at Mayo? I am in Austin, TX, but flew to Mayo JAX for a second opinion. I am so glad I did. My diagnosis was also Grade 0 (DCIS is contained and has not spread). HR+ (E & P) . Meaning positive for being Estrogen and Progesterone fed. I was also HER2 negative.
Your biopsy report, which you can access on your patient portal, will give you other info, such as size and shape, clustered, group, distorted, etc.
I was diagnosed May of 2024. I had a routine mammo, then a diagnostic due to suspicious area. Then a mammo guided biopsy. Then I had an MRI guided biopsy as well as an US guided biopsy. In my case, I chose DMX (Double Mastectomy) with AFC (Aesthetic Flat Closure). I am 58 and my breasts do not define me. I wanted my recurrence rate to be as low as possible. I wanted ONE surgery and be done. I've read horror stories about implant illness and also having to have the implants replaced every 10 years or so. A good friend had DIEP Flap. She is happy, but I am not interested in having a tummy tuck and going through 10 hours of surgery and then follow up surgery. There is a Goldilocks procedure and lumpectomy as other options.
The questions I would ask are:

What is my chance of recurrence?
Do you have a family history? (I do not)
Do you carry the BRCA gene? (I do not)
What are my treatment options? Surgery? if so, type? Radiation? Chemo? Tamoxifen or other drugs? For me, no radiation of chemo. I turned down Tamoxifen.
Lymph node removal? I had sentinel nodes removed on both sides during my DMX.
My recovery was quick and easy and pretty much painless. I did have my surgery at Mayo in JAX.

Biggest piece of advice, breath. There is also a book I highly recommend by Dr Susan Love, The Breast Book. So full of information.
Remember, DCIS is CONTAINED.

Again, what does your bioipsy report actually say? This gives alot more input.