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Treatment of Recurrent Breast Cancer
Breast cancer can sometimes come back after treatment. This is called a recurrence. It sometimes happens years later. If breast cancer recurs, treatment depends on where in the body it comes back.
Recurrence can be:
- Local: in the same breast or in the surgery scar
- Regional: in nearby lymph nodes, such as those under your arm or around your collarbone
- Distant: in a distant part of your body
Cancer that is found in the opposite breast without any cancer elsewhere in your body is not a recurrence. This is a new cancer that will need its own treatment.
Treating local recurrence
If your cancer comes back in the same breast or in the surgery scar, your treatment will depend on how the cancer was treated before.
- If you had breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy), a local recurrence in the breast is usually treated with a mastectomy.
- If your initial treatment was a mastectomy, recurrence near the mastectomy site is treated by removing the tumor whenever possible. This is often followed by radiation therapy if you did not get it before.
In either case, other treatments such as hormone therapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, or chemotherapy may be used after surgery and/or radiation therapy. You might get a combination of these treatments. They might also be used if surgery or radiation is not an option.
Treating regional recurrence
Breast cancer that comes back in nearby lymph nodes is treated by removing those lymph nodes, if possible.
This may be followed by radiation aimed at the area if it was not given before. Systemic treatment such as chemo, targeted therapy, or hormone therapy may also be considered after surgery.
Treating distant recurrence
If breast cancer comes back in other parts of the body, such as the bones, lungs, or brain, it is generally treated the same way as breast cancer that is first diagnosed as stage IV and found in those organs.
The only difference is that treatment may or may not include treatments or medicines a person has already had.
See Treatment of Stage IV (Metastatic) Breast Cancer.
Considering a clinical trial
Recurrent breast cancer can sometimes be hard to treat. If you are in otherwise good health, you might want to think about taking part in a clinical trial testing a newer treatment.
Learn more
See Understanding Recurrence for more on managing and coping with this phase of your care.
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- References
Developed by the American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team with medical review and contribution by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Henry NL, Shah PD, Haider I, Freer PE, Jagsi R, Sabel MS. Chapter 88: Cancer of the Breast. In: Niederhuber JE, Armitage JO, Doroshow JH, Kastan MB, Tepper JE, eds. Abeloff’s Clinical Oncology. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier; 2020.
Jagsi R, King TA, Lehman C, Morrow M, Harris JR, Burstein HJ. Chapter 79: Malignant Tumors of the Breast. In: DeVita VT, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA, eds. DeVita, Hellman, and Rosenberg's Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. 12th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2023.
National Cancer Institute. Physician Data Query (PDQ). Breast Cancer Treatment – Health Professional Version. 2025. Accessed at https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/hp/breast-treatment-pdq on May 4, 2026.
National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Practice Guidelines in Oncology: Breast Cancer. Version 2.2026. Accessed at https://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/breast.pdf on May 4, 2026.
Last Revised: July 9, 2026
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