[Jackie07]

Delaney,

You were diagnosed in 2008 as a stage II - so the survival rate you are looking at should be the statistic for Stage II, not a stage IV even though now you've got mets.

Several of our members - especially the newly diagnosed - have got their mets treated successfully with either vaccine trials or other new types of treatment. Statistics don't tell the whole story. Most information we get 'on the Web' can be misleading - even when it is from a trusted source because our understanding of the disease is not as complete as the trained specialists.

I remember my distraught when my recurrence was confirmed. There are people who claim that whenever there's recurrence, it's automatically a Stage IV. My oncologist was out of town attending medical conference and my husband got another oncologist to explain to me that it was called a local-regional recurrence and would be treated as if it were found the first time.

There's a brochure on breast cancer you can request from the American Cancer Society which details (with a chart) http://www.cancer.org/index how each stage is defined and treated. There are subcategories within each stage. And remember the statistic covers all patients - some may have other chronical illnesses, some may have other condition that lowers their odds.

I always find the 'long-time survivor' and 'long-term survivor' threads inspiring.

And there's T-DM1 which is a very promising treament method, we hope it will be approved soon.

Think positively - postive thinking increases the release of endorphin which helps improve our immune system...