Can breast cancer start in another part of the body?
A fellow caregiver asked...
Can cancer start in other parts of the body and then go to the breast making breast cancer secondary and not primary?
Expert Answer
Andrew Putnam, M.D. is a Palliative Care physician at Smilow Cancer Center at Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale University.
The question is what is the primary site of any cancer. In order to be truly what we call "breast cancer" the origin or primary site of the cancer must be in the breast. Cancer that comes from another primary site and is found in the breast is not called breast cancer. It would be called ________ cancer that has metastasized to the breast.