A local recurrence in less than a year "is not good news"

Oncologists said that the renewed outbreak of "a two centimeter lesion" (less than an inch) on the same site where President Hugo Chávez had cancer and less than a year after the initial surgery means two things: Chemotherapy was not effective and the Venezuelan Head of State will likely need radiation therapy or radio-surgery.

"It is called a local recurrence. If the mass has two centimeters, it is very likely that it was detected by imaging because with this size it hardly causes any symptoms," an oncologist said following the announcement of the president about the relapse.

"A local recurrence, less than a year after the first surgery, is not good news because it means that chemotherapy was not effective and that it could be the start of a recurrent disease. In this case, the time to the progression of the disease has been very short, about four or five months," the oncologist explained. He stressed that his opinion was based on official statements, because a medical diagnosis has not been known.

After detecting a local recurrence of cancer, there are different treatments. If it is feasible "from a technical point of view and in default of any other elements showing a spread of the disease," surgery is the first option. "Doctors can use laparoscopy as an initial approach" and then they can decide to operate or not, the doctor noted.

Due to the size of the lesion, less than one inch, it is probable that doctors use radiation therapy or radio-surgery to fight it, because cancer cells were not sensitive to chemotherapy.