Bloody Discharge after Lumpectomy

[pholloman]

I was diagnosed with cancer on June 30, 2010. I had 2 lumpectomy surgeries, July 19th then another on August 2nd. When doctor tried to put mammosite in breast, she was unable to do so due to scar tissue. I went back to surgery in September 2010 to remove scare tissue. When the scar tissue was sent to pathology, there was .03 centimeter spot located in the scar tissue, however, doctor seems to think that maybe radiation from the mammosite has taken care of any additional cancer. He is doing a consult with his peers as we speak.

On last week, I noticed that my nipple was swollen on the affected breast. So I squeezed it and to my surprise blood came out. It was red (like when you cut yourself) in color. I called my doctor and he says that I should not squeeze the nipple, which I complied. But, a couple of days later, while I was getting ready for shower, I noticed blood oozing out on its own. It's been 2 days now and has not happened since.

My questions are: 1) how ofter is cancer in scar tissue? 2) Should I be concerned about the blood coming from my breast
Can anyone help me with this

[bluebutterfly2222]

I am happy to hear that your MRI resullts were negative!

I would suggest you keep follwing up on the spontaneos bleeding with your surgeon or a breast specialist.

I hope the radiation(a local tx) will take care of any other possible stray cancer cells or microinvasions, but chemo (a systemic tx) might be a consideration, to be even safer...

Best wishes...

[elanaobryan]

I am having the exact thing happening, Did you have any pain in your affected breast? I do. It almost feels like a swollen duct or something. I had one lumpectomy. The pain is on the opposite side that the lumpectomy was on.I am going in the morning to have the mammosite put in so I will be seeing the Dr. then.

[pholloman]

Thank you bluebutterfly. The margins were clear on all three excisions. My surgeon was surprised to see the cancer in the scar tissue. Since my post I received the results on a MRI I had performed. The result were negative for cancer, however, I am still having spontaneous blood coming from my nipple.

[bluebutterfly2222]

Were adequate clear margins obtained from the 2 lumpectomies?  If not, it is more likely the scar tissue could contain cancer cells, but it would be possible anyway, because BC can be multifocal (sepaerate areas in the breast) rather than just one tumor.

I would definitely get back to the surgeon for a re-evaluation. And if this was a general surgeon rather than a breast specialist, you might want to get a second opinion from a breast specialist, who would be able to discuss with you all of the issues you have raised here.

Best wishes...