Hi all, hope everything is going well
I am 29 years old and I was diagnosed with stage 3 hormone receptor-positive breast cancer with high ki67 scores (%80) and I completed my 16 rounds of chemo in January (with 4 rounds of AC and 12 rounds of paclitaxel). I had two lumpectomies, one in February and the other in March, and it resulted in clear margins. I’ve started hormonal therapy and radiation for a month but I felt a new lump in a completely new area on the same breast. The ultrasonography found a suspicious tumor-like lump 10x13x15mm. I also had an MRI yesterday, waiting for the results, and I’m really anxious about a recurrence since it looks very possible to have one, and it is way too soon to have. My question is: if this does turn out to be a recurrence, would I need to go through the same treatments again, including surgery and all rounds of chemotherapy? I am really hoping that surgery alone would be enough. The thought of starting chemotherapy all over again is making me very anxious. Thank you for any advice or shared experiences.
Sorry no direct experience but sending you best wishes and positive thoughts x
The main factor, if it is a recurrence, would be the type of cancer - and it could be different to previous - which would direct the potential treatment(s) available.
Easier said than done, of course, but take it one step at a time. It might just be something benign and you would have wasted your energy on stressing about something that didn’t happen.
Fingers crossed. 
thank you so much for your wishes 
Yes, I guess if it’s bad news, I need to wait for the biopsy results for a better look at the tumor biology and thus treatments accordingly. As it’s said to me, it seems like something malign in ultrasonography (95%) But timing really scares me since it’s been only three months after the surgery and I need to wait for the results for a possible treatment. I really wish it turns out to be something benign. Thanks for the wishes
Hi @arabella1 sorry you find yourself back in the long waiting game for results again.
I had a recurrence, not as quick as yours granted, but the first time round I had surgery, chemo, radiotherapy and a few months of letrozole. When it came back 3years and 3 months later I had surgery and 4 months of tamoxifen only. My cancer type was the same both times.
Like @silvertong said in part it will depend if yours is the same type, the size etc. I think technically if it’s a different type they class it as a new primary and treat specific to that type. If it’s a recurrence of the same type then I think it’s decided more on a case by case basis according to what they find.
Before I knew what my second time round would entail I remember thinking I wasn’t sure I could do chemo again so I have to admit I was glad when I didnt have that option anyway. I hope the wait isn’t too long for you though and you can get some answers soon. 
Thank you so much for your answer, and I’m glad that you didn’t go all through the chemo cycles again, even though the surgery is bad enough I guess when it comes to chemo we feel relieved that surgery alone is enough. I hope everything is going well for you and I hope, like you, I can get rid of this thing with a surgery thank you for the wishes 
Hi, I too had a recurrence of Lobular breast cancer, first time in 2018, the next Dec 2025.
I didn’t have chemo first time around but had 23 sessions of radiotherapy and put on Tamoxifen for 5 years. This time I couldn’t have radiotherapy again because I had already had it, instead I had to have a mastectomy. So even if it is a recurrence it can be treated differently.
I really hope it isn’t a recurrence and it’s fat necrosis or similar, I went 4 times to the hospital with suspected recurrence and had to have biopsies but they came back as fat necrosis so hopefully it’s just that 
.
I wish you luck. Please keep us updated. Take care of yourself
hi, I’m glad that you treated with the surgery and all the suspected biopsies turned out to be fat necrosis. Unfortunately, mine turned out to be a tumor, not sure if it’s something new, I guess we will find out after the surgery with the detailed pathology results. Now I have all different kinds of complications because of the radiotherapy, but I hope I can get rid of them all soon.
Hi, sorry to hear your results are not what you was hoping to get.
I also eventually had a tumour so I know just how you are feeling, like most of the ladies here.
I would just say though, after 23 sessions of radiotherapy which I dealt with at the time well, I have had a few problems, mainly pain in the breast area and side. It has eased off now but it has been 8 years since I had radiotherapy. It also caused me problems when I wanted reconstruction because there was a lot of scar tissue, I gave up trying in the end .
Whatever your current problems are, you will be surprised how strong you can be and you soon get used to living with it. I really hope this is the case for you too.
I wish you luck for your future x
Now I also try to decide what to do in terms of surgery because I want to try reconstruction options, but as you know it is too complicated. I don’t know what will happen next but as you wished in your message, I hope to go through this process eventually in the best way. Thank you so much for your wishes and I wish you luck for the future as well
I had a lumpectomy originally but I had a 34mm tumour, then I had a second operation for clear margins which madey breast a lot smaller than my good one. I decided to have reconstruction. They first did a LICAP which wasn’t successful, so I had 2 more lipografting operations and it did improve it but I decided to stop there, I had enough of operations at that point.
Unfortunately it was a waste of the NHS time and money because the cancer came back and I had mastectomy.
If you have any questions or want to PM me I’ll be happy to talk.
Thank you for your kind wishes x
Your situation is indeed very similar to mine, even though I also have a big tumor, my doctor kept preferring lumpectomy. The other doctors said that there is no need to keep trying lumpectomy with big sized and/or multifocal tumors since it is too risky in terms of recurrence that unfortunately we ended up with. I’m sorry that you went through with all these complications and surgeries and I hope we won’t have to hear anything about this disease again in the future. I’ll finish radiotherapy and have another surgery immediately without considering reconstruction options because of the effects of radiotherapy. Thank you so much for your support and I wish us good luck