Posted by Dr. D on October 6, 2009, 7:26 pm, in reply to "Re: mammogram after DIEP?"
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Dear Guest,
Neither is formally recommended all the time. It depends on the protocols of your surveillance team after surgery, what they are comfortable with and what their experience is. Physical exam and routine Xrays, blood studies are for those with breast cancer history at a minimum. Imaging of the breasts, particularly for those who have had prophylactic mastectomy is more controversial. Most would argue that more information is better, but in the case of MRI, it will find things that turn out to be nothing at all which may lead to unnecessary biopsy, etc. If there were breast cells left behind after mastectomy they would be more likely to be superficial so that if something grew it would likely be palpable, hence the argument for physical exam alone. Take the recommendations of your breast surgical oncologist/oncologic team and go from there. No single answer to that one unfortunately.
Yours,
Dr. D
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