Nikki Sommer, a nurse with Key West Surgical Group, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM for Medical Matters this morning.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and there are different options for treatment, depending on the type of breast cancer that is found and the size of the mass.
Sommer said a “lumpectomy is where they surgically remove the tumor, the lump, the rim of the healthy tissue surrounding it, and they send that out to pathology to make sure that they got it. The recovery time is pretty minimal. It’s not as invasive as when they and as when they have to do a mastectomy or remove the whole breast. It’s all done the same day surgery.”
There’s also the sentinel node injection.
Sommer said, “The sentinel nodes are the closest nodes associated with the cancer tumor. When they inject the dye, it will light the nodes up and alert them when the doctor goes in there, they can kind of tell if they think the cancer has spread. So they will remove those nodes, and with the tumor itself, those nodes will be sent to the pathologist to review to make sure that there’s no cancer in there. If there isn’t, that means that you will probably need less follow up treatment with the oncologist, less invasive treatment. It means the cancer hasn’t spread. But if there is cancer in those nodes, that’s an indication that it has started to spread to other parts of the body, which is known as metastasis. So it might dictate your treatment, post your surgery with the oncologist, a little different.”
Needle localization is also part of the surgery.
Sommer said, “They have a really neat thing now. It used to be you would have to get a wire put in and kind of be like a wire sticking out of your breast, but they have a really neat device where you will go in and the radiologist will actually put a chip where the tumor is and then during surgery, there is a device that locates that chip so the surgeon knows where to go in and remove that tissue and that lump. Now that is usually only when you’re doing the lumpectomy. When you have the mastectomy, you only need to have the sentinel load injection, because with the mastectomy, they’re removing the whole breast. So everything is being removed.”
When is a lumpectomy recommended?
Sommer said, “When the tumor is small enough, and the area tissue can be removed without deforming the breast. It’s usually recommended because it’s less invasive. It doesn’t it doesn’t require more invasive surgical intervention, and you tend to have a faster recovery. You’re home in just a few hours after surgery. A lot of times the incision can be closed with dissolvable sutures, and you can get back into your routine in a couple of days, five to seven days. It says two to three days here. But I always say, give it five to seven, rest and you’re back doing your normal activity. After you have your follow up, we will, or the surgeons will always recommend you have a consultation with, usually the radiation oncologist. In most cases, they will send you to both a medical and a radiation oncologist so they can explain to you all your options for post treatment.”
A lumpectomy and radiation is also an option.
Sommer said, “A lot of times the radiation is five days a week for a couple of weeks. I think it’s between five to 12 weeks, but it’s for an extended period of time. Right now, we don’t have a cancer center, so that means that if you opt for the lumpectomy, you will have to see an oncologist in Miami and have that radiation treatment in Miami. Now I do know Miami has advanced technology where they do depending on the type of tumor you have, and your diagnosis, they might have shorter rounds of radiation, so keep that in mind.”
Mastectomy is another option.
Sommer said, “They might not need the radiation or chemotherapy if they go ahead, if it’s caught early enough, and they have the mastectomy, and then, if they want to have reconstruction later on, they can, but the mastectomy is where it removes all the breast tissue and it gets all the cancer all at once, because your whole breast is removed. A lot of times this is the only option for somebody who has a larger tumor, or if there are multiple areas of cancer throughout the breast, which can happen. We’ve seen people come in with two different types of breast cancer in one breast. So unfortunately, it’s usually better for them to have a mastectomy, an area that needs to be removed is too large and the breast would be deformed afterwards. People will do a bilateral mastectomy, preventative in the future. They usually say within five years, depending on the type of cancer, you can have it in the other breast. So they will just forego the chances of having it happen in the other breast. They just opt for a bilateral mastectomy.”
What determines if a mastectomy is required over a lumpectomy?
Sommer said, “It’s just aggressive, if it’s already invading into the tissue, multiple areas in the breast, if you’re high risk, if you have family history of breast cancer, sometimes they will recommend that you have the mastectomy.
Sometimes lumpectomies don’t get the entire cancer.
Sommer said, “As much as advanced imaging as we have, sometimes when the surgeon goes in, the area is larger, so they will do the best to take that lump and the surrounding healthy tissue. Every once in a while it does come back where either they have to go in and do more, or they find out that it has spread a little bit further into the tissue where they need to go back and do a mastectomy. We do have people we refer to in Miami. I know it’s a big stress that we don’t have cancer care down here in the Keys right now. I know they’re working to try and get that up and running. But if you’re scared, lost or don’t know what to do, we do have but multiple doctors for all different types of cancers we can refer to in Miami.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keywestsurgicalgroup.com/