Hi Lilyrose, I was told that I did not have clean margins which means some cells might have been left behind. I too ended up with a re-excision after my lumpectomy. I assumed that when I got the path report back that I would see these cells were found, but it didn't happen that way. There was no mention of cancer cells found but it had clean margins. I than worried that cancer cells would be floating around in my breast looking for another place to set up camp. My surgeon told me that is not what happens. Generally after a few weeks they do radiation to make sure that all cancer cells are destroyed. I've just finished 25 radiation treatments and sure do hope that now all is well in there.

@A MyBCTeam Member

Your Dr. should not leave you in the dark without an explanation.

Either go on My Chart, if you have that, and say that you need a concise explanation as you need this information to go forward successfully as a patient or call and leave this message for Dr.

Should be able to reply in a sentence or so.

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A MyBCTea...

Thank you Susan. What worries me is the potential spread of cells. Is it common in a report to read severely disrupted margin? I don’t understand. I wish I could talk to the surgeon, but she didn’t have much time at any of our appointments.

I had a second surgery also to get clean margins. From talking to others, quite a few did also. When they cleared the margins, they also decided to take 5 lymph nodes out as well.