Breast Cancer Spread To Chest Wall Prognosis

For more than half of women who develop stage iv breast cancer the bones are the first site of metastasis.

Breast cancer spread to chest wall prognosis.

If a chest wall recurrence is localized it is referred to as a non metastatic breast cancer recurrence. Surgery is often necessary and may be followed by plastic surgery reconstruction to recreate a normal appearance. Symptoms can include shortness of breath a cough that won t go. A chest wall recurrence may involve skin muscle and fascia beneath the site of the original breast tumor as well as lymph nodes.

The end of life symptoms associated with metastatic breast cancer depend on where a person s cancer has spread to and they can include both physical and mental issues. As a result cancer that recurs in muscles on the chest has a less favorable prognosis. When cancer recurs in the chest wall it may be classed as a locoregional recurrence or it may be linked to distant metastasis. Breast cancer can spread to the lungs or to the space between the lung and the chest wall making fluid build up around the lung.

Although breast cancer can spread to any bone the most common sites are the ribs spine pelvis and long bones in the arms and legs. A chest wall recurrence is breast cancer that returns after a mastectomy. Other chest wall cancers include metastatic cancer desmoid tumor and neurogenic tumors. The tumor may be any size and cancer has invaded the chest wall or breast skin with evidence of swelling inflammation or ulcers such as with cases like inflammatory breast cancer the breast cancer may also have invaded up to 9 nearby lymph nodes.

Tumors in the chest wall typically manifest as painful quickly growing and easily palpable masses. Spread to up to nine lymph nodes under the arm or near the breastbone. Spread to or broken through the skin. Breast cancer that comes back in the liver lungs or brain has a poorer prognosis than cancer that recurs in other parts of the breast the muscle on the chest or lymph nodes under the arm called the axillary lymph nodes.