e receptive, something that affects whether hormone treatment is givenThe risk of recurrence generally depends on the stage of the original cancer.-Recurrence can occur either in the breast or in another part of the body-The risk of recurrence for an in situ cancer after mastectomy is almost zero. **CONTRA?**-With infiltrating cancers, chances of recurrence are determined by tumor size and pattern of infiltration.-The larger the tumor, the higher the risk of recurrence.- If the tumor was less than one centimeter (three eighth of an inch), the chances the patient will be cancer free after 5 years is more than ninety percent.-If the cancer was up to two centimeters (three fourth of an inch), the chances the patient will be cancer free after five years is seventy five percent-If the cancer was two to five centimeters (three fourth of an inch to two inches), the chances the patient will be cancer free after five years is thirty to forty percent.-If the cancer was five centimeters (2 inches) or larger, the chances the patient will be cancer free after five years is twenty five percent.- Cancers which infiltrated to the lymphatics of the skin or to the chest muscle greatly increase the chances of spread to other parts of the body, regardless of tumor size.There is some correlation between tumor size and lymph node involvement.-approximately twenty percent of patients with tumors smaller than one centimeter had cancerous lymph nodes.-Sixty percent of patients with tumors larger than five centimeters had cancerous lymph nodesThe following pattern of lymph node involvement affects risk of recurrence.-the more lymph nodes are cancerous, the higher the risk of recurrence.-The highest risk of recurrence exists among patients with ten or more cancerous nodes-The larger a specific tumor in the node, the greater the risk of recurrence-If the tumor breaks through the capsule of the node and they (node and tumor) adhere together, the risk of rec...
