In the years following breast cancer remission, breast cancer survivors must undergo regular medical testing to monitor the health of their breasts and detect any cancer recurrence. Breast cancer can recur at the original site of the tumor in an event called local recurrence; in the tissues surrounding the affected breast, which is called regional recurrence, or in another part of the body, known as distant recurrence, according to Imaginis. Although breast cancer recurrence can be frightening and stressful, patients have a number of treatment options to treat recurrent breast tumors.
Surgery
Many patients with recurrent breast cancer receive surgery to help treat the cancer. Surgery due to breast cancer recurrence is typically aggressive and may involve the removal of all healthy breast tissue on the affected side, as well as any overlying skin and underlying chest muscle tissue. Excision of existing breast tissue can remove local breast cancer recurrence or regional recurrence in tissue underneath the breast.
In some cases, breast cancer patients develop regional breast cancer recurrence in the lymph nodes surrounding the breast, which leads to the formation of a lump under the arm. In this case, breast cancer patients may also receive a lymph node dissection surgery, in which most or all of the lymph nodes around the affected breast are removed to prevent future cancer growth.
Systemic Hormone Therapy
Another treatment option for recurrent breast cancer is systemic hormone therapy. Hormone therapy employs drugs that interfere with hormones signaling to breast cancer cells, which diminishes breast cancer cell growth and treats the recurrent tumor.
A common target of hormone therapy is estrogen. During breast cancer development, specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells allow the cells to proliferate in the presence of estrogen. Hormone therapy can prevent cancer cells from sensing estrogen in the blood, or it can prevent the formation of estrogen and lower overall estrogen levels in the body. Hormone therapy also allows doctors to target cancer growth in several parts of the body, so hormone therapy can effectively treat some forms of local, regional or distant cancer recurrence. The National Cancer Institute notes that hormonal therapy following other breast cancer treatments can also reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence in the future.
Systemic Chemotherapy
Some patients with recurrent breast cancer may receive chemotherapy. Chemotherapy involves the use of toxic chemicals to damage and kill rapidly proliferating cells, including recurrent breast cancer cells. This line of treatment also offers systemic action and can target and kill cancer cells throughout the entire body, treating cancer recurrence in one or more tissues at once.
Breast cancer chemotherapy drugs typically lead to a number of side effects since they kill some healthy cells as well as cancerous ones. Medline Plus indicates that patients receiving chemotherapy may suffer from nausea, fatigue and hair loss, although these side effects are temporary and will stop following cessation of treatment.
