This wasn't with my breast cancer, it was with my ER positive endometrial cancer, but there's some similarity to your situation.

The first time it came back in 2021 they put me on an AI for a couple months which did nothing to slow the growth. Then they did 7 rounds of chemo, with Paclitaxol and Carboplatin, which slowed the growth a little, but didn't stop or kill it. Their thoughts were AI and then chemo would shrink the new tumor so they would be able to do surgery afterwards to remove what remained. Their thought process was wrong. What finally killed that 1st endometrial cancer recurrence was radiation, but the tumor had grown larger durung AI and chemo and grew through the abdominal muscle into the interstitial space between the muscle and my intestines making it inoperable. I still have a small egg sized lump that hurts and produces muscle spasms, but at least it's dead. After experience with 1st recurrence I made them do radiation as the 1st treatment when endometrial cancer came back a 2nd and 3rd time and in both of those cases 1 week of heavy duty radiation killed the recurrences while they were still about a centimeter in size. After that I don't trust chemo to kill or shrink my cancers, I only really trust the radiation to kill it for both breast and endometrial cancers.

I was pissed when breast cancer came back in 2024 cuz after surgery they made me do 6 months and 8 rounds of chemo 1st followed by 4 weeks of radiation. I wanted radiation before the chemo cuz I know that it kills my cancers and I don't trust the chemo after my 1st experience with it. I'm 1 year out of treatment now and have my 4th post treatment PET scan in a couple weeks so scanxiety is ramping up. They have me on Letrozole AI and Ibrance CDK inhibitor to hopefully kill anything new or remaining, but I don't really trust the drugs. Only reason I take them is recurrence rate for my stage 3C breast cancer is 50% without drugs and 30% with drugs.

Hopefully they were able to remove all of your tumor and get clear margins. I imagine in your case they will probably want to do radiation along with whatever other treatments would be appropriate for your cancer type. I hope whatever they do works and puts and keeps you in NED status ❤️

Fortunately, no, I had pathological complete response. But if I didn’t, there was a plan. It is all driven by the bio markers. I would think radiation for sure. I am TNBC, so I would gotten Xeloda, an oral chemo for a few months. For those that are Her2+, Herceptin/Perjeta is changed to Kadcyla or Enhertu. For hormone positive breast cancer, Verzenio or Kisqali, oral chemo is given.
Of course getting complete pathological response is ideal, there are options!