Breast cancer recurrence is the return of cancer after treatment of breast cancer.
According to American Cancer Society, roughly one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer will have breast cancer recurrence.
Location
Breast cancer recurrence can occur near the location of the first breast cancer. This is referred to as local recurrence. Breast cancer recurrence can also occur in the lymph nodes (also known as regional recurrence) or in another organ (also known as distant recurrence).
Time Frame
According to the American Cancer Society, one in nine women diagnosed with breast cancer will develop recurrent breast cancer within five years of initial treatment. This number increases to one in five women at 10 years after the initial treatment.
Alcohol Use
Alcohol use was found to increase risk of breast cancer recurrence (www.nature.com). The increased risk of cancer recurrence was highest in women who drink two or more glasses of wine per day.
Prevention/Solution
Chemoprevention is effective against breast cancer recurrence. Chemopreventive agents such as tamoxifen have been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence by half. However, chemopreventive agents might increase the risk of some diseases, including strokes and cataracts.
Genetic testing assays such as OncotypeDX and MammaPrint can be used to identify who would benefit most from chemoprevention of breast cancer recurrence.
Considerations
Women with hormone receptor-positive tumors are twice as likely as those with hormone receptor-negative tumors to develop breast cancer recurrence.
