Breast cancer after mastectomy?

I had a preventative double mastectomy in late 2017 after I found out I had brca2 gene. They removed all internal breast tissue from both breasts and kept my nipples. I had reconstruction at the same time with implants which failed due to necrosis of the skin, so I had to have the implants removed and lost one of the nipples.

I now have a pink/red small circular patch of skin with a red 'blood' spot in the middle close to my remaining nipple. It's not on the nipple but on the skin. It is dry and scaly. I've had it for at least a year and to be honest I never really thought much of it because I've had the preventative surgery already.

I'm just wondering what are the chances of getting breast cancer after a mastectomy? And does this sound like something I should be concerned about?

My sister died 2 months ago from breast cancer that spread to her brain, which could have been prevented if she wasn't too scared to get the genetics blood test, so this has made me more cautious 

Parents
  • From what i remember when my wife was going through this, was no, a mastectomy doesn't prevent you from the cancer returning or it taking hold. What it does do is lessen your chances because less breast tissue = less places for it to take hold/or return.

    My wife was initially down for a mastectomy, but ended up getting a lumpectomy due to her getting a full response to the cancer. We were delighted with the downgrade, but worries remained. We got it explained that a mastectomy does not get rid of 100% of the breast tissue, because that's next to impossible, supposedly. Makes sense, i suppose because they'd have to remove all the tissue from the skin and chest wall. There is a thing called a radical mastectomy that removes all skin, the nipples, muscles, lymph nodes etc, but that procedure is rarely done.

    Not saying any of this to freak you out, it's just the facts as we were told them.

Reply
  • From what i remember when my wife was going through this, was no, a mastectomy doesn't prevent you from the cancer returning or it taking hold. What it does do is lessen your chances because less breast tissue = less places for it to take hold/or return.

    My wife was initially down for a mastectomy, but ended up getting a lumpectomy due to her getting a full response to the cancer. We were delighted with the downgrade, but worries remained. We got it explained that a mastectomy does not get rid of 100% of the breast tissue, because that's next to impossible, supposedly. Makes sense, i suppose because they'd have to remove all the tissue from the skin and chest wall. There is a thing called a radical mastectomy that removes all skin, the nipples, muscles, lymph nodes etc, but that procedure is rarely done.

    Not saying any of this to freak you out, it's just the facts as we were told them.

Children