Long term estrogen therapy, high fat diet, and alcohol use may also increase breast cancer risk. In most cases the cancer begins as a tumor in the breast and then spreads to the lymph nodes and then out to other organs in the body. The earlier the cancer is detected the better the likelihood that it can be cured. Routine mammograms and monthly breast self examinations are the best methods of early detection. The cancer is then characterized by size of tumor and how far it has spread.
Recurrent cancer is a cancer that returns after treatment.
Some of the patient's bone marrow or blood stem cells are removed and frozen. The patients are given high doses of chemotherapy and sometimes radiation to destroy the cancer cells. As this treatment also destroys the bone marrow, the patients then are given an infusion of the removed cells to replace the destroyed marrow. BMTs have been performed during various stages of breast cancer. Remission rates are as high as 40 to 50 percent for Stage IV cancer patients, though most patients will have recurrent cancer later on.