Definition
A breast cancer recurrence is a relapse of the cancer, i.e. a recurrence of the tumor. After an initial successful treatment, the cancer returns. It can manifest itself again at its original location in the breast (local recurrence), or it can also occur in other organs or lymph nodes through transport via the bloodstream – the tumor has then “spread”. The cause of a recurrence is cancer cells that have escaped treatment and which can still multiply years after the therapy and lead to a new cancer.
Causes of a relapse
The cause of a recurrence of breast cancer is the persistence of malignant cells in the body, which have survived the initial therapy and can now grow back into a tumor. One reason for this may be that surgical removal of the tumor is not radical enough. As a result, individual overlooked cancer cells can remain in the breast, which can multiply again over years.
For this reason, the breast is always irradiated after surgical tumor removal in order to kill any remaining tumor cells. Unfortunately, this procedure is not a hundred percent guarantee that all cancer cells in the breast will be killed. Another option is that the cancer has already spread unnoticed before the treatment, so that the emigrated cancer cells can settle in every corner of the body and multiply there again.
To prevent this, chemotherapy is usually administered. However, for various reasons, such as special defense mechanisms and mutations of the cancer cells, they may, under certain circumstances, escape chemotherapy and survive in the body. This can lead to a recurrence of breast cancer even years later, which can also manifest itself in other organs such as the lungs, liver, bones or brain.
Accompanying symptoms as an indication of a recurrence
Which symptoms occur in case of a relapse depends on its localization. In case of a local recurrence in the breast, a lump may form, which can be palpated by the patient. If the lymph nodes are affected, they can become enlarged so that they can be palpated in the armpits as solid, fixed painless nodes.
However, a recurrence of breast cancer can also occur in other organs if the tumor cells here have survived the therapy. In this case, the symptoms that occur depend on the organ affected; the breast cancer has metastasized. If the skeleton is affected, bone pain and spontaneous bone fractures often occur without adequate trauma.
The spinal column and the bony pelvis are particularly often affected. If the liver is affected, upper abdominal pain and jaundice, i.e. yellowing of the skin and eyes, may occur. If a relapse occurs in the lungs, symptoms such as shortness of breath or persistent coughing (up to coughing up blood) may occur.
A breast cancer recurrence can also occur in the brain, where a variety of symptoms are possible. In addition to headaches, epileptic seizures, numbness or paralysis, personality changes can also occur in the case of brain metastases. Regardless of the location of the tumor, general symptoms such as unintentional weight loss, fever and fatigue can occur. You may also be interested in the following articles: Detecting breeding cancer or signs of breast cancer
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