It happened again. This week I saw a patient for a PET/CT scan with a history of breast cancer. She told me that she had had cancer in her right breast four years ago. She had a mastectomy, chemo and radiation. Recently, they found cancer in her left breast and she was beginning the process all over again. Even before I knew I had breast cancer, I noticed that I was seeing a fair amount of women in this same situation. You know, I just don't want to go through the whole cancer treatmernt process again, although I'm sure the PET/CT scan patient didn't want to either! Having a bilateral mastectomy instead of removing just the affected breast seems more and more like the way to go for me. Some of the cancer info out there, especially the things about recurrences, can be very confusing. You really have to dig in and concentrate or the message is muddled. What I think I'm hearing and reading is that having only the affected breast removed does not increase the likelihood of a recurrence manifesting as distant metastases as opposed to opting for bilateral mastectomy. What a mouthful! See what I mean about confusing?! I interpret it as: having the bilateral mastectomy doesn't change the possibility that the cancer won't show up again outside the breast, in the liver, say, or in a bone. But, having the bilateral mastectomy removes billions and trillions of breast tissue cells, cells that have the possibility of changing into cancer again. Some of the messages might not be so straightforward but, the situation I'm seeing as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist is quite clear so I feel like I have to act on it.