What Happens Next After Distant Recurrence of Breast Cancer?
Distant breast cancer recurrence refers to breast cancer that returns in a different location than the original site of the cancer. In other words, the cancer does not come back in the breast, but it comes back in some other part of the body. This does not mean that you have cancer of the part of the body it returned in. For example, if the distant breast cancer comes back in the liver, you do not have liver cancer—you have primary breast cancer with liver metastases. The fact that the cancer is in a distant location means the breast cancer is metastatic, or stage IV. Stage IV breast cancer is not curable, but it is treatable.
