Treatment Options

Treatment for Local Recurrence

Despite treatment, breast cancer sometimes comes back. If the cancer reappears in the breast or near the mastectomy scar, it is a local recurrence.

The treatment you will receive for a local recurrence depends on the treatment you had initially.

• If you had a lumpectomy or other breast conservation surgery, a local recurrence in the breast will probably be treated with a mastectomy.

• If you had a mastectomy, a recurrence will be treated by removing the tumor, if possible, and then radiation therapy.

• In either case, this initial treatment may be followed with hormone therapy, chemotherapy, or both.

More information on treatment options:

• Surgery
• Radiation
• Chemotherapy
• Sentinel node biopsy
• Metastatic breast cancer
• Breast reconstruction

August 2007