Next Steps: after local recurrence

Posted by anjalima @anjalima, Oct 6 9:57am

Interested in experiences of those who have had a local recurrence while on AI? I had a lumpectomy on my mastectomy breast ( did not have radiation) due to an 8mm local recurrence. It’s a step down to grade1 and KI-67 down to 3% so not aggressive BUT is this a complete AI failure???

Has anyone been on Fulvestrant? An injection SERD… selective estrogen receptor degrader?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Breast Cancer Support Group.

Chris, Volunteer Mentor | @auntieoakley | Oct 7 9:29am

Oh, @anjalima that stinks, you are such a beacon in this community that I would hope for a remaining cancer free life for you. I am glad that it is a local recurrence only but my heart breaks that it came back in your scar.
This is only my understanding and not a hard fact, but endocrine therapy decreases the risks by a percentage, due to decreasing the availability of the tumor to use hormones for growth. SERD is one process through which they can accomplish this reduction.
Sadly it is never a guarantee that we won’t get a local or even a distant recurrence, it reduces our chances. I was on tamoxifen for my first recurrence and this is how it was explained to me, even though they did not have tests like KI-67 at the time.
How are you feeling after your lumpectomy? How are you “doing”?

anjalima | @anjalima | Oct 7 9:53am

Hi and thank you for responding.

I’m doing well ( I hope). It actually was not in my scar but between the skin and implant. So I guess a microscopic cell got away from mastectomy surgery. I’ve had surgery and now will have radiation in case any other cells are lurking.

My onco is recommending Fluvestrant ( injection) . I have an appointment with a second opinion onco at MSK NY next week. She is on the cutting edge of medical oncology for breast cancer; presented an interesting paper at ASCO in June which I read ( how I found her).

I’m sorry to hear you had a recurrence on Tamoxifen! What is your story and what was recommended for you post recurrence?

I found the module while drying off after shower… had a biopsy the next day… and surgery 3 weeks later ( surgeon and plastics had to co ordinate) so I’m pretty lucky about immediate access to health care.