Many patients, after actively cooperating with treatment, have the same doubts as this patient, is the recurrence rate of female breast cancer high or not? Although with the advancement of technology, the 5-year survival rate of early stage (stage I-II) breast cancer patients has reached over 90%, there are still a considerable number of patients who will experience recurrence and metastasis. Why do breast tumors recur? I. Staging and pathobiological characteristics of breast cancer. First, the stage of breast cancer at the initial diagnosis determines the recurrence rate after surgery. The earlier the breast cancer is, the lower the recurrence rate after surgery, while the more advanced the recurrence rate is, the higher the recurrence rate is. Therefore, early diagnosis and early treatment are very important! In addition, breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous group of malignant tumors with great variation in histomorphology, immunophenotype, biological behavior, and response to treatment. Some categories of breast cancer have poor prognosis, high rate of local recurrence and distant metastasis. Second, the patient’s own physical condition, organ function, and psychological factors. Factors such as poor physical condition will increase the possibility of breast cancer recurrence, while psychological state is related to immunity, and too much stress will cause weakness and reduced resistance. Third, irregular and incomplete treatment is also an important cause of cancer recurrence. Most of the breast cancer patients consulted have subclinical metastasis. Since some cancer cells that circulate away from the primary foci to distant places cannot be removed through surgery, these cancer cells will be hidden and become the culprit of cancer metastasis and recurrence in the future if there is no comprehensive and effective systemic treatment after surgery. How to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer? Scientific and standardized anti-cancer treatment is the most important for the recovery of the disease. Most breast cancer patients have to undergo a series of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, endocrine therapy and targeted therapy after receiving surgery, which all have certain toxic side effects while bringing survival benefits. Many people refuse to receive follow-up treatments because of the fear of these toxic side effects, and some people even believe that these treatments will damage the body’s immune function and are not conducive to anti-tumor treatment. Just imagine, it is very difficult to eliminate breast cancer easily when dealing with such a strong opponent. The current traditional treatment methods are to kill the tumor at the expense of some normal cells. Therefore, the key and difficulty of conventional treatment lies in the balance of “give” and “get”, which not only kills tumor cells, but also enables normal cells to recover after treatment without causing permanent damage. Although the current conventional treatment method is not perfect, it is the one that has been verified by the most clinical practice cases. Treatments with high anti-cancer effects and low side effects are not a pipe dream, but many of them are still in the experimental stage and need more evidence before they can be brought to the clinic. As for the so-called “panacea” and “health and anti-cancer methods”, we cannot reject them all, but we can only be skeptical when they are not supported by more scientific evidence. Therefore: respect science and cherish life. Keeping a good state of mind, doing proper physical exercise and improving bad habits are also very beneficial to reduce the occurrence of recurrence and metastasis. In addition, diet regulation, quit smoking, alcohol and other bad habits, eat more green vegetables, legumes and fresh fruits, high protein foods such as lean meat, eggs and fresh milk are also indispensable. Regular review and lifelong follow-up after breast cancer surgery How long should we insist on the follow-up visit? A large amount of clinical data tells us that the prognosis varies greatly among breast cancer patients, and a few patients with early stage may have problems in the near future, while some patients with advanced stage may survive for quite a long time, even without any treatment. There are now quite a few data with follow-up of 30 or 40 years or more, all of which show that although the overall prognosis of patients improves a lot after treatment, there are patients who recur from recently after treatment to decades later. Therefore, breast cancer patients should in fact adhere to lifelong follow-up and review. As a gentle reminder, breast cancer should be reviewed every 3 months for 2 years after surgery or treatment, 6 months for 3 to 5 years, and once a year from the 6th year onwards.