Women’s basketball coach Kay Yow is back on chemotherapy, according to N.C. State Media Relations.

The veteran coach, who is about to enter her 33rd year at N.C. State, had been off the treatment for about five months.

She was taking Zometa and Tamoxifen — both drugs that she said earlier in the year weren’t “hardcore like chemo.” At the time, Yow said the hormonal treatment was much better on her body and allowed her “to get back to normal.”

Yow took a leave of absence in late November last year before the team traveled to the west coast for two games. She missed the next 16 games, and associate head coach Stephanie Glance served as the team’s interim coach during that time — going 10-6 during that span.

Yow returned for the final 12 games before the NCAA Tournament as well as the tournament, and the Wolfpack won 10 — taking down No. 2 North Carolina and No. 1 Duke — of those first 12 contests after her return. The team advanced to the ACC championship game, only to lose to the Tar Heels.

State would advance to the Sweet 16, and Yow made the trip to Fresno, Calif. Her nurse, Angela Vaughan, even made the trip and sat beside Yow on the flight — providing medicine and making sure the coach was comfortable.

Yow first was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and it recurred in the fall of 2004. Last year she began fighting the disease for the third time.