Someone wrote:

>This friend said her mother and another friend  of hers both had
>several  bouts of mastitis in one area of one breast. Later both >developed
>cancer in the mastitis prone breast  same location and  both >have since
>died. Coincidence?

Speaking purely from a theoretical perspective, as I am not aware of any
*research* on this specific topic . . . .

It is quite possible that whatever led to the mastitis also contributed to
the breast cancer, and/or that the cancerous tumor was what caused the
mastitis.

It is thought that by the time a breast cancer mass is detectable, either by
hand palpation or by mammography, it has been present and growing for ten
years, at least.  So if you had a tiny cancerous mass blocking the milk from
flowing freely in the breast, it could lead to mastitis.  Many years later,
it would have grown big enough to be diagnosed as cancer.

Another scenario would be that if you had an area of the breast with
'malformed' ducts, then you might get a blockage of milk in the breasts
leading to mastitis, which would lead to inflammation and perhaps damage to
the surrounding tissues.  As the breast tried to heal itself, it would be
producing new tissue, and any time you have new tissue for growth/repairs,
you can get cancerous growths.

In my own case, my left breast never produced as much milk as the right, and
my children preferred the right side.  In 1987, I had a non-cancerous lump
removed from the left side at the 'noon' position.  It was described as a
benign fibroadenoma.  With my subsequent pregnant/lactation in 1991-1996,
again the left breast didn't produce as much milk, and my son preferred the
right side.  In 1999, I again had a lump at the exact same spot on the left
breast, but this time it was cancerous.  There are many possibilities here,
including that the two growths were unrelated, that the surgery for the
first lump led to the cancer the second time around (women who have had
breast surgery for any reason have a higher than typical risk of breast
cancer, usually at the site of the surgery), that the first lump wasn't
benign at all but was misdiagnosed and the cancer was allowed to re-grow
because of the misdiagnosis, that there was something wrong with the duct
system in that part of the left breast, and that's what led to the benign
fibroadenoma, then the surgery led to that breast producing even less and to
the second cancer, and other possibilities as well.

I never had mastitis in that breast, though.

All of which is to say, there probably is some link between mastitis and
breast cancer -- either they have a common local cause or the mastitis then
leads many years later to the cancer.

Kathy Dettwyler

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html