What are the chances of the cancer coming back if i had breast-sparing surgery with radiation?

About 1 in 12: On average, ten years after breast-sparing surgery and radiation, 1 in 12 women will have a local recurrence (a cancer that comes back in the same breast.) the good news: even if you have such a recurrence, you are no more likely to die of breast cancer than women who had a mastectomy.

Low: If you had breast sparing surgery and just radiation most likely you had early stage breast cancer with favorable factors, negative lymph nodes etc. That did not require chemotherapy. There is a good chance 80-90% chance of disease not to come back. You may also be getting anti estrogen therapy that can even improve the odds up to 95% control.

Dr Brown agreed

Depends: The risk for recurrence of breast cancer after a lumpectomy and an adjuvant radiation therapy would depend on the stage and the biology of the breast cancer ( estrogen/prgesteron receptor, her2neu status, tumor size, lymph nodes involvement, k1-67 etc). Having an adjuvant radiation therapy after surgery will only reduce the risk for local recurrence of breast cancer to the same breast area. D/w md.

Dr Ferdowsi agreed

Depends: The risk of local recurrence following conservative surgery and radiation for breast cancer is slightly higher than with mastectomy but does not affect survival. The risk of distant relapse depends on the stage, grade, presence or absence of biological receptors and number of positive axillary nodes. Higher # of positive nodes portends higher risk of relapse which can be reduced by adjuvant tx.