Early Breast Cancer | Understand EBC Risk

Understanding your risk of breast cancer coming back is the first step

Everyone's journey with breast cancer is unique. We are here to help you better understand what you can do to help prevent your cancer coming back.

If you are one of the many women who experienced the most common type of early breast cancer, HR+, HER2-, you may still be at risk of cancer coming back even after surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy.

Even women who received hormone therapy after these initial treatments were at risk of cancer coming back within 20 years. The odds of recurrence are:

1 in 3 people with no cancer in their lymph nodes. 1 in 2 people with cancer in ≥ 4 lymph nodes.

The risk is real, but you have options. Learn about a treatment that can help patients like you.

HR+, hormone receptor-positive; HER2-, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative.

Know your risk

Understanding your diagnosis and risk factors is the first step for making informed treatment decisions. There are many factors that can impact your risk of cancer coming back, including:

Tumor stage
Tumor size
Number of lymph nodes impacted
Age and menopausal status

Unfortunately, if cancer returns, it may spread to other parts of the body. When this happens, the cancer is known as metastatic breast cancer, and it is not curable.

What you can do

Your doctor may recommend adjuvant or maintenance therapy, such as hormone therapy and other appropriate treatment options.

Get answers about your treatment options

Advocate for yourself: Talk with your doctor

Talk to your care team about your treatment goals and take an active role in your treatment plan. Ask your doctor:

Which tests can help assess my risk of cancer coming back?
What else can I do to minimize my risk?
What are my options to help reduce the risk of cancer returning?

It can feel overwhelming when you’re faced with unfamiliar medical terms. To help make sure you can better communicate with those helping you, we've provided a short list of terms and their definitions.

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5 Terms to Know

If the breast cancer returns in the breast, it is known as local recurrence. When breast cancer returns to a body part other than the breast, it is called distant or metastatic recurrence.

Stage indicates how much cancer is in the body and its behavior. Stages 1, 2, and 3 are early. Stage 4 is metastatic, meaning it has moved beyond the breast. The subtype determines the treatment. The most common subtype is HR+, HER2−.

Refers to the spread of cancer to the lymph nodes and whether or not the lymph nodes in the underarm area, which are called the axillary lymph nodes, contain cancer.

Treatment given in addition to surgery and radiation therapy to get rid of breast cancer cells that may have spread to other parts of the body. It may include chemotherapy, hormone therapy and/or targeted therapy.

A cancer treatment for HR+ tumors, which rely on the presence of hormones, such as estrogen or progesterone, to grow.

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