local or regional recurrence

My sister has an extremely aggressive   breast cancer and had a mastectomy .The mass was 8cm , sentinal node biopsy was negative . She had an ultrasound in December 08 all clear and in one month after finishing chemo and radiation a recurrence of a 2.8cm tumor (which has been proved to be the same type cancer} has appeared in her armpit. A pet scan showed no organs are affected so a surgery has been scheduled for the cancer under her arm. My question is , Is it possible for her to be cured of this cancer or is that considered a stage 4 from the original  stage 3.? She is triple negative and metaplastic type.which is extremely rare. Not much info to be found.

I so much appreciate your expert opinion.
Thank you very much

[Cleveland Clinic]

Dear sandy23,  Metaplastic breast cancer is a form of invasive ductal cancer, meaning that it forms in the milk ducts and then moves into other tissues of the breast. Inside the tumors of this type of cancer are cells not normally found inside the breast, such as squamous (skin) or osseous (bone) cells. It is also known as carcinoma with metaplasia, or simply metaplastic breast cancer.  It is not uncommon for these types of tumors to be larger than usual when diagnosed, of a higher stage and often test negative for hormone receptors.  The finding of a new tumor after initial treatment is completed would be described as a recurrence and treated as such.

Treatment decisions like with other breast cancers would depend on several factors including, tumor characteristics, other test results, prior treatments, overall health of the patient etc.  Triple negative cancer means that the ER PR hormone receptor statuses are negative, as well as HER2 receptor negative.   Treatments that would not be used are the hormone therapies that would be used to treat hormone receptive cancers or medications like Herceptin or lapatinib which target the HER2 receptor.