That's for the clarification about what Pat meant.  I certainly agree that
if the surgeon thinks the lump needs to come out, then it should come out
right away, not after the baby is delivered some months hence.

>Can you tell us in what way breast surgery of any kind, increases the
>possibility of breast cancer?

It's a statistical correlation -- having had breast surgery increases your
risk of breast cancer 2-3 fold.  In other words, if you take

1,000 women with no breast surgery, you expect 125 cases of breast cancer
over their lifetime (1 out of 8)

1,000 women with breast surgery for any reason, you find 250-375 cases of
breast cancer over their lifetime

There are different theories -- that maybe the 'benign' breast lump really
wasn't benign, which would account for some of the lumpectomy/benign
diagnosis--subsequent breast cancer cases; or that disturbing the breast
tissue itself leads to cancer cell formation.

Women who have had lumpectomies and mastectomies for cancer who have
reoccurences often have the cancer reoccur at the site of the scar -- not
elsewhere.

There are also other cancers for which former surgery at the site is one of
the risk factors.

Kathy Dettwyler

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