What are warning signs of triple negative breast cancer recurrence?

Posted by SABITHA @sabithamayo, Jul 3, 2022

I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in2018 and had lumpectomy with lymph node dissection followed by chemotherapy and radiation. I am aware of the high recurrence rate because of triple negative, I do self breast examination twice in a month.Pls adv what are the visible signs of a regional and local recurrence in my breast and dissection area? what all things i have to check to find out warning signs of a recurrence

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@sabithamayo

Yes i am having annual mammogram and follow up check up with my oncology surgeon. My cancer was discovered by noticing a lump in left breast.
On recent self exam i noticed swelling in the lymph node dissection area

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I had a stage 1A ER+, PR+, HER2- tumor lumpectomy removed last year so it's a simpler cancer in a sense. My follow-up instructions are to do self-exam every month or more frequently, have a physician-assisted breast check (ob/gyn or anyone doing a lot of such exams) every six months and annual mammo and ultrasound followed by check-up with both my oncologist and breast surgeon. And bloodwork including tumor markers. Maybe you get a physician breast check more frequently, at least for the first few years?

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@auntieoakley

This would be the same rule as for nodes and deep breast tissue. If you see or feel any new changes (know your normal) you should ask that it be checked out. I know that many of these turn out to be nothing important, but isn’t it better to have peace of mind, than to lay awake worrying.
Are you see changes in your breast and nodes that are worrying you?

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Dear Chris, thanks for the reply
I am currently doing a systematic self exam of breasts twice a month and also keeps a data of that with images. There is few colour changes on areola and also on breast base skin,but this is going away with 1 week
Lymph node swelling is not there now.
I wanted to know is there any specific colour changing pattern on breast that gives me an early warning sign of a recurrence

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@callalloo

I had a stage 1A ER+, PR+, HER2- tumor lumpectomy removed last year so it's a simpler cancer in a sense. My follow-up instructions are to do self-exam every month or more frequently, have a physician-assisted breast check (ob/gyn or anyone doing a lot of such exams) every six months and annual mammo and ultrasound followed by check-up with both my oncologist and breast surgeon. And bloodwork including tumor markers. Maybe you get a physician breast check more frequently, at least for the first few years?

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Dear Callalloo,
Thanks for the reply.i do self exam twice a month and i am not able to find any specific colour changes but there is changing colours around areola and breast base skin when i compare previous images
I wanted to know is there any specific colour changing pattern in case of a recurrence

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Mi hija presenta sintomas de leucemia y quisiera saber si puede generar complicaciones respiratorias, porque he leido que aveces el cancer en un organopuede llevar consecuncias a otro organo

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@sabithamayo

My left breast lumpectomy dissection is done on the areola. What are the symptoms of recurrence on the areola...is there will be any colour change or noticable lump on my areola

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Hi. My diagnosis is not triple negative BUT I had a change in the color of my Areola that led me to my BC diagnosis. Essentially when I lifted my right arm to apply deodorant one day, while facing a mirror, I noticed that the areola depigmented ( from pinkish to pale yellow/blue) arm down and returned to pinkish. Did not happen on left breast. Persisted! Got an earlier than scheduled mammo AND ultrasound AND breast exam = breast doc/surgeon ( of 35 years) did not understand the symptom and never encountered the symptom SO all good? Persisted… two months later I had an MRI = 2 tumors and one Ax node light up!

The de pigmentation of the nipple was due to a positional occlusion of the blood vessel being impinged by the one tumor when I lifted my arm overhead.

Hope this is helpful as we self exam ourselves through our journey.

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@anjalima

Hi. My diagnosis is not triple negative BUT I had a change in the color of my Areola that led me to my BC diagnosis. Essentially when I lifted my right arm to apply deodorant one day, while facing a mirror, I noticed that the areola depigmented ( from pinkish to pale yellow/blue) arm down and returned to pinkish. Did not happen on left breast. Persisted! Got an earlier than scheduled mammo AND ultrasound AND breast exam = breast doc/surgeon ( of 35 years) did not understand the symptom and never encountered the symptom SO all good? Persisted… two months later I had an MRI = 2 tumors and one Ax node light up!

The de pigmentation of the nipple was due to a positional occlusion of the blood vessel being impinged by the one tumor when I lifted my arm overhead.

Hope this is helpful as we self exam ourselves through our journey.

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Congratulations on the "persisted" verb. It would be great to be able to rely on doctors to have perfect knowledge at all times, but unreasonable when medical knowledge expands exponentially every day. The access to the internet can be our second-best friend. We're our first ...

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@luis56

Mi hija presenta sintomas de leucemia y quisiera saber si puede generar complicaciones respiratorias, porque he leido que aveces el cancer en un organopuede llevar consecuncias a otro organo

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Welcome @luis56. I encourage you to post your question about leukemia and respiratory complications in the Blood Cancers & Disorders support group here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/blood-cancers-disorders/

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@anjalima

Hi. My diagnosis is not triple negative BUT I had a change in the color of my Areola that led me to my BC diagnosis. Essentially when I lifted my right arm to apply deodorant one day, while facing a mirror, I noticed that the areola depigmented ( from pinkish to pale yellow/blue) arm down and returned to pinkish. Did not happen on left breast. Persisted! Got an earlier than scheduled mammo AND ultrasound AND breast exam = breast doc/surgeon ( of 35 years) did not understand the symptom and never encountered the symptom SO all good? Persisted… two months later I had an MRI = 2 tumors and one Ax node light up!

The de pigmentation of the nipple was due to a positional occlusion of the blood vessel being impinged by the one tumor when I lifted my arm overhead.

Hope this is helpful as we self exam ourselves through our journey.

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Thanks for your remarks. in my case the colour difference has vanished in 1 week and there is no visible changes now. Hoping there is no complications as such.My routine mamo and check up is scheduled in early September

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In recent days i am having delayed and irregular menstrual cycles.Is there any relation between cancer recurrence and irregular menstrual periods?

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I am dealing with a reoccurrence of my TNBC . Just completed my chemo protocol yesterday after many bumps, including 2 hospital stays. Mine was a localized and same cancer from 2 and 1/2 years ago, I have a few weeks break and then I will start 25 rad treatments, TNBC is a beast 😡

My reoccurrence was found in my 6 month bilateral mammogram and ultrasound. It was found in my ultrasound not my mammogram ( it was too deep for the mammogram to pick it up! Always say you NEED the ultrasound!

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