What If It Comes Back?

Transcript

Relapsed or recurrent breast cancer. This is what we consider the setting when you were treated for a curative or definitive breast cancer early stage that unfortunately has come back months to years down the line after completing therapy.

The first thing to do when this occurs is to rebiopsy the lesion to see the receptor status. This is very important because as we mentioned in the previous videos, the three receptors, estrogen, progesterone, and HER2, totally dictate which therapies you can and cannot use. And that receptor status then enables you to use agents you couldn’t use if you became positive.

This is important because 15% of breast cancers that do recur or relapse in the future will change the receptor status that they had previously. 85% will still have the same distribution, but of course you don’t want to miss therapy or be using therapy that’s ineffective, not knowing what the current status is of those receptors. So these are things to talk to your doctor about.

Key Takeaways

1. Relapsed or recurrent breast cancer is what we consider the setting when you were treated for breast cancer early stage that has come back months to years after completing therapy.

2. The first thing to do is to rebiopsy the lesion to see the receptor status.

3. The three receptors (estrogen, progesterone, and HER2) totally dictate which therapies you can and cannot use.

4. 15% of breast cancers that do recur or relapse in the future will change the receptor status that they had previously.