Papillary Carcinoma last year and now Breast Cancer

Hi Roni,

What kind of treatment did you receive for your thyroid cancer?  If you had RAI therapy, I guess there's a very small chance it may have caused your breast cancer, though I've never heard of it happening.

I've never heard of papillary metastisizing to the breasts, the usual spots being lungs and bones.  They should be able to determine this, I'm pretty sure that under a microscope papillary cancer cells look different than breast cancer cells.

It could be that whatever triggered the papillary cancer in the first place has also triggered the breast cancer, but there's no way of knowing.  If this is the case, it seems odd the slower growing cancer would manifest itself first.

I think it's very unlikely the two are related.  Talk to your doctor {oncologist if you have one} about these questions, I'm just some guy on the internet who has no medical training at all.

Alan

Roni1961 said:

I had a TT in January 2013

I had a TT in January 2013 followed by the RAI in March. I had a recurrence of the thyroid cancer show up in July in one of my lymph nodes on the right side of my neck. I had a neck dissection in August. Everything has been great since, all of my levels look great, including the thyroglobulin.

I went in for my yearly physical  and mammogram last week and there were changes from last year's mammogram. I went back for another mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy. The biopsy was positive. There was no lump at all to feel in the breast exam.

I guess you can say I'm "lucky" yet again that it was discovered very early like both occurrences of the thyroid cancer.

I go see my surgeon tomorrow to discuss the next steps. I don't have an oncologist, I only saw an endocrinologist for the thyroid cancer. This is all very new to me.

I don't have an oncologist either, my endocrinologist specializes in treating thyroid cancer patients so I didn't see a need.  You can talk to your endo about this, bring all the lab reports from your mamograms, sonograms and biopsy so he has something to look at.  Your surgeon may also be very knowledgable about the questions you have, depending on his speciality.

I think if the breast cancer is metastic thyroid cancer they would have told you so, but best to ask to be certain.

Yes, I know what you mean, "lucky" to catch it early.  I didn't know anything was wrong until I felt a swollen lymph node in my neck.  Per doctors orders, I waited for a few months for it to go down, then spent another month waiting for the biopsy and found I had papillary.  I had a TT and neck disection 2/11 and RAI 4/11.  So far no recurrance, but we'll see.  They're right when they say "lucky", if I had ignored the lump, I'd probably be dealing with a larger metastic spread than just a couple of nodes in my neck.  The thing is, when you have cancer, it's hard to feel "lucky".

Roni1961 said:

Good news, I'm actually in

Good news, I'm actually in early stage 1. I'm having a lumpectomy on Friday and it's an outpatient surgery. I'll have to do radiation treatments for 5-6 weeks, but no chemo.

He also said that the 2 cancers are not related as far as he knows.

Great!!!  The ealier the better!

candid said:

great news Roni; hopefully

great news Roni; hopefully the lumpectomy and the radiation will go allright.

candid

Hi Roni, I have 3 kinds of cancer first uterine cancer in 2004, breast in 2008, had lumpectomy and luckily it's also on early stage then thyroid in 2009 had total thyrodectomy now metastasized to my lungs. I'm being monitored by my endocrinologist and Head and neck oncology. I'm ok now and hopefully for a long time. I just take one day at a time. 

You will be ok just keep your spirits up. I'm glad they caught it at early stage. Cheers for that. Take care and god bless.

Roni1961 said:

I had a TT in January 2013

I had a TT in January 2013 followed by the RAI in March. I had a recurrence of the thyroid cancer show up in July in one of my lymph nodes on the right side of my neck. I had a neck dissection in August. Everything has been great since, all of my levels look great, including the thyroglobulin.

I went in for my yearly physical  and mammogram last week and there were changes from last year's mammogram. I went back for another mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy. The biopsy was positive. There was no lump at all to feel in the breast exam.

I guess you can say I'm "lucky" yet again that it was discovered very early like both occurrences of the thyroid cancer.

I go see my surgeon tomorrow to discuss the next steps. I don't have an oncologist, I only saw an endocrinologist for the thyroid cancer. This is all very new to me.

I had a TT 2013 and RAI followed. Can you tell me how they detected your reoccurence in July?