If you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, your focus will be on getting the right treatment, but you’ll wonder, too, about your chances of surviving. Your doctor may call this your prognosis. It’s an estimate of how the disease will go for you. It’s just that -- an estimate, or an educated guess. Every situation is different. Your doctor is
the best person to help you understand your prognosis. Some of the things they will think about include: A key part of making a prognosis is looking at survival rates. These are numbers researchers collect over many years in people with the same type of cancer. These numbers are based on large groups of people. For breast cancer, there are two main measurements: Breast cancer survivalrates reflect the percentage of women who are alive 5 years or
longer after their diagnosis. This means the numbers are based on women who were found to have breast cancer at least 5 years ago. Advances in diagnosing and treating cancer have led to steadily improving survival rates, so the outlook for women diagnosed today is likely better. Relative survival rates don’t take into account the cause of death. They’re a measure
of the percentage of people with cancer who have lived for a certain time after diagnosis, compared with people who did not have cancer. The overall 5-year relative survival rate for breast cancer is 90%. This means 90 out of 100 women are alive 5 years after they’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer. The 10-year breast cancer relative survival rate is 84% (84 out of 100 women are alive after 10 years). The invasive 15-year breast cancer relative survival rate is 80% (80 out of 100 women are alive after 15 years). The survival rates by stage are based on the stage at the time of diagnosis. You’ve probably been given a number and letter for your cancer stage. Here, the terms localized, regional, and distant are used instead of numbers and letters. Here’s what they mean and the
5-year relative survival rates for each:
Relative Survival Rate by AgeFive-year relative survival rates by age at the time of diagnosis are as follows:
Combining the StatsAnother way to look at 5-year relative survival rate is by putting together age and stage. Age at the time of diagnosis is broken into two groups: women under 50 and women 50 and older. These numbers are:
These numbers can be confusing. But they factor in a lot of information. For instance, it may be surprising that women with localized breast cancer who are younger than 50 have a lower 5-year relative survival rate then women ages 50 and up. Younger women are less likely to be diagnosed at an early stage compared to older women. They’re also less likely than older women to have hormone-receptor positive breast cancer, which means hormone treatment isn’t a good option for them. Statistics are averages. They don’t tell the whole story. And they certainly don’t tell your story. Ask your doctor to explain cancer survival statistics and how they may apply to your situation. But keep in mind, there’s no person or number that can exactly predict what will happen to you. How long can you live with untreated metastatic breast cancer?About one-third of women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S. live at least 5 years after diagnosis [7]. Some women may live 10 or more years beyond diagnosis [9].
How long can you live with incurable breast cancer?Metastatic breast cancer is terminal
Although around 1 in 10 women will survive over ten years, we are a long way from metastatic breast cancer being a chronic disease for most people. The median survival for people diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer is 2-3 years.
What happens if breast cancer is left untreated?If treatment does not occur, breast cancer will usually spread to other areas of the body (metastasize). Very often the first area that cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the underarm area (the axilla). Once cancer enters the lymphatic system, it can and usually does spread to other areas of the body.
How long can you leave with stage 4 breast cancer?Stage 4. Around 25 out of 100 women (around 25%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after they are diagnosed. The cancer is not curable at this point, but may be controlled with treatment for some years.
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