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Why and Where Cancer Returns
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"I was floored. I thought all the
cancer was gone. I was just getting
back to a normal life. I was even
more surprised that it came back
in a different place. But I didn't
care where it was. I just wanted it
to go away." - Ronald |
When cancer comes back, doctors call it a
recurrence
(or
recurrent cancer).
Some things you should know are:
- A recurrent cancer starts with cancer cells that the first
treatment didn't fully remove or destroy. Some may
have been too small to be seen in follow-up. This
doesn't mean that the treatment you received was
wrong. And it doesn't mean that you did anything
wrong, either. It just means that a small number of
cancer cells survived the treatment. These cells grew
over time into
tumors
or cancer that your doctor can
now detect.
- When cancer comes back, it doesn't always show up in
the same part of the body. For example, if you had
colon cancer, it may come back in your liver. But the
cancer is still called colon cancer. When the original
cancer spreads to a new place, it is called a
metastasis
(meh-TAS-tuh-sis). (See the box below.)
- It is possible to develop a completely new cancer
that has nothing to do with your original cancer.
But this doesn't happen
very often. Recurrences
are more common.
| Where Cancer Can Return |
Doctors define recurrent cancers by where they develop.
The different types of recurrence are:
-
Local recurrence.
This means that the cancer is
in the same place as the original cancer or is very
close to it.
-
Regional recurrence.
This is when tumors grow in
lymph nodes
or tissues near the place of the
original cancer.
-
Distant recurrence.
In these cases, the cancer has
spread (metastasized) to organs or tissues far
from the place of the original cancer.
Local cancer
may be easier to treat than
regional
or
distant cancer.
But this can be different for each patient.
Talk with your doctor about your options.
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