Breast cancer - what does this mean?

[zafferana]

School gate friend of many years standing, late 40s, diagnosed with BC this summer after finding a small lump in her breast. It was removed and she is recovering well, but she's been told she has to go back and have another op, as presumably they've found more. What does this mean? Is it more serious if you have more than one lump? A different stage? I don't know if the new lump is in breast tissue or lymph nodes or what and I'll find out when I see her, but I didn't want to question her via text. It would be good to not be too ignorant when I see her though and I don't want to downplay it if this actually makes it more serious. TIA

It’s difficult to say why she needs another op.

It it to remove a lymph node to see if it’s spread there? The lymph node is where the bc spreads to first. Maybe it wasn’t removed during the main surgery.

Some people like to talk about their bc, and others are more private, so I would follow her lead when talking about it. She has been through a lot recently, and may want to escape from the bc world for a while, and just talk about BGT etc.

Good point - it's not like I need to know - so I'll let her tell me what she wants to or talk about something else. However, she's out of luck if she wants to talk about BGT with me

It may be that they did a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy and didn't get enough margin.

I had a mastectomy as my lump was still large after chemo but other women I met had lumpectomies and had to go back for further surgery as they hadn't taken enough cells from the first op.

Wishing your friend a swift recovery.

Thanks @ranoutofquinoaandprosecco. Yes, I believe she had a lumpectomy, so that sounds right. I do hope so, as if so that seems the least serious thing it could be. This is the second friend this year who's been diagnosed with BC

Sorry this is a bit late.
If she had a lumpectomy or even a mastectomy they may not be happy with getting enough of a clear margin

Another relatively common cause is that they take a sample of lymph nodes closest to the original cancer and check them for any cancerous cells. If there was anything dubious they may want to take more nodes to be on the safe side.

It may well change her staging and treatment plan. Give her space to talk and she may be grateful of the support from someone not emotionally invested.