Simply put, recurrence is the return of the same cancer after initial treatment. Therapy for early-stage breast cancer aims to reduce the chance that cancer will return, or 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.
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.