If you've been successfully treated for breast cancer, you probably want the security of knowing that you're home free. Yet there is no absolute assurance that a dormant cancer cell won't wake up and start to divide. Because there is always a slight chance that breast cancer will return, you probably wonder how you will know if it is back. In order to fully understand the implications of this question, we need to first address a few more things.
Cells can travel through the body via the bloodstream or the lymphatic system.
They may remain dormant for years, and unknown factors can trigger their subsequent reactivation, resulting in cancer showing up in other parts of the body many years after the first cancer was treated. We can never be absolutely certain that any woman is cured of breast cancer. It applies to women who don't experience a recurrence. For example, two-thirds, of women diagnosed with breast cancer who are treated will die of causes other than breast cancer. There isn't a lot that we do to detect recurrent cancer, aside from regular checkups and mammograms.