Breast cancer recurrence is when you have breast cancer that comes back (recurs) after treatment. Breast cancer can come back months or years after you’ve finished treatment. Healthcare providers can treat recurrent breast cancer, but it can come back again.
What are the symptoms of recurrent breast cancer?
Symptoms vary depending on where cancer started. For example, cancer that comes back in the same area as the original cancer (local cancer) causes different symptoms than regional cancer, which is breast cancer that’s spread to nearby lymph nodes.
Distant (metastatic or Stage 4) breast cancer can involve any organ, including your bones, lungs, brain or liver. Symptoms depend on where the cancer spreads. You may experience:
Pain where breast cancer has spread, including bone pain.
Treatment varies depending on the recurrent cancer’s location and earlier treatments. For example:
If you had a lumpectomy for a local or regional tumor, your provider may recommend a mastectomy to remove one or both of your breasts and nearby lymph nodes.
If you had a lumpectomy, you may be a candidate for another lumpectomy with radiation. Talk to your doctor about this.
If you have recurrent breast cancer in a reconstructed breast, your surgeon may want to remove the breast implant or skin flap.
If you had a mastectomy, treatment may include surgery to remove the additional tumor, followed by radiation therapy.
The main treatment for metastatic breast cancer is systemic therapy that covers your entire body, including chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy.
How is breast cancer recurrence diagnosed?
Your healthcare provider will do some of the same tests you had when you first received your breast cancer diagnosis:
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