Understanding Breast Cancer Recurrence

Despite the best efforts of your health care team to surgically remove all traces of your breast cancer tumor, the reality is that breast cancer can still recur. Early stage breast cancer can return months to years after the original diagnosis and treatment. The cancer can come back as a local recurrence (in the treated breast) or as a distant recurrence elsewhere in the body, such as the bones, lungs, liver, or other organs.

Many laboratory tests are performed on samples of the breast tumor taken during surgery to help doctors design a treatment plan based on the specific characteristics of the tumor. However, even with these tests, it can be difficult for doctors to precisely determine the aggressiveness of the tumor.

Simply put, recurrence is the return of the same type of cancer after initial treatment. Therapy for early-stage breast cancer aims to reduce the chance that cancer will recur. It is valuable to know the chance that your particular cancer will return, because that can help you and your doctor determine whether additional treatment beyond surgery is appropriate (i.e., chemotherapy in addition to radiation & long term hormonal treatment).

There are two main types of recurrence:
Local recurrence is the return of cancer to the area where a woman originally had cancer and subsequent surgery. Signs of local recurrence of breast cancer usually become apparent during mammograms, physical examinations by a health professional or self-examinations.

Local recurrence is often treated similarly to the way the original cancer was treated: with surgery, followed by radiation therapy (if it was not done initially), chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy.

In distant recurrence, the cancer metastasizes, or spreads to parts of the body other than the original location (breast or lymph nodes located near the breast). Symptoms such as bone pain, weight loss, and shortness of breath may be signs of distant recurrence. If cancer does metastasize, it commonly spreads to the lungs, bones, liver or brain.