Breast Cancer Screening After Prophylactic Mastectomy - Dr. Jay K. Harness, BreastCancerAnswers.com

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In this clip, Jay Harness, MD, FACS explains how breast cancer screening works after you have had a prophylactic mastectomy.

I have been asked a question about how you screen for our breast cancer after you had a prophylactic mastectomy? It's really a very good question.

Now there's no breast surgeon on the planet that can tell you that with a mastectomy 1000% of all the breast tissue is removed at the microscopic level. Clearly all of us are trying to remove everything we can see and feel, whether we are doing the mastectomy for cancer or prophylactically.

There are no good standards as far as screening for cancer coming back with a prophylactic mastectomy. I don't think insurance companies would typically cover doing mammograms, MRI I believe is out of the question because of the cause.

So the most important thing you can do is a good breast self-examination of the mastectomy site because in general, you've got the skin, you may have the nipple areolar area as well and you'll have a thin envelope of fat graved underneath of the skin.

So a good self-examination is probably the most important thing you can do. Also inspecting and looking at the nipple areolar complex to make sure that it hasn't changed in any way.

Now I am going to predict that in the future we are going to have imagine ways of detecting and screening for a recurrence after prophylactic mastectomy. I think those kinds of technologies are a few years away. So as they say on the radio and TV business, 'stay tuned', but in the mean time please learn how to do a really good breast self-examination even after a prophylactic mastectomy.

This information should not be relied upon as a substitute for personal medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Use the information provided on this site solely at your own risk.  If you have any concerns about your health, please consult with a physician.

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