Early breast cancer is cancer that is contained in the breast or has only spread to the lymph nodes in the underarm area. This term often describes stage I and stage II breast cancer. In the U.S., most breast cancers are found at these early stages.

With treatment, people with early breast cancer usually have a very good prognosis.

Locally advanced breast cancer has spread beyond the breast to the chest wall or the skin of the breast. Or, it has spread to many axillary lymph nodes. Locally advanced breast cancer can also refer to a large tumor.

Treatment for early and locally advanced breast cancers usually involves some combination of surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, HER2- targeted therapy and/or other drug therapies.

Either a mastectomy or a lumpectomy will be recommended. With either surgery, some lymph nodes will be removed from the underarm area to determine whether the cancer has spread there.

Most people who have a lumpectomy get radiation therapy. Most people who have a mastectomy don’t need radiation therapy.

Most people have drug therapies after surgery to lower the risk of breast cancer recurrence. Some combination of chemotherapy, hormone therapy (with or without the CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib), HER2-targeted therapy, immunotherapy and/or PARP inhibitor therapy almost always follows breast surgery.