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Breast Cancer (Expert Forum)
Aduquate margins
Questions posted in the Breast Cancer Forum are answered by medical professionals from The Cleveland Clinic. Topics include Breast Biopsy, Chemotherapy, Hormone Therapy, Lumps, Lumpectomy, Lymph node dissection, Lymphedema, Mammograms, Mastectomy, Radiation Therapy, Reconstruction, Self Breast Exam, and Surgery.
Aduquate margins
by Marbo, Jul 14, 2004 12:00AM
I had a lumpectomy on April 22 and was told there were clean margins. Upon a follow up mammogram on May 18 residual calcifications were found and it was decided to do a re-excision to remove these. This surgery was done on June 15 and I was told things look good. I obtained a copy of the pathology report and noticed that one of the margins was less than .1cm. My question is should I be concerned with such a small margin of tissue. I am scheduled to start radiation in August and would like to have another opinion as to whether this is a large enough margin to allow for optimal results or if I should have another re-excision.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-RN,MSN-rf, Jul 14, 2004 12:00AM
Dear marbo: In general, surgeons prefer a margin of at least 1 millimeter or 0.1 cm. Depending on how close this was, it may be that since you are undergoing radiation, this will be adequate for local control of the disease. It may also depend on the types of cells found at the margin (DCIS vs invasive cancer). This is a reasonable question to ask your surgeon and/or radiation therapist as these folks will be better able to provide their opinion as it relates specifically to you.
