question to your onc's

[jojo]

Hey, I have just one random question....

Have you ever asked your onc if he/she ever witnessed any patient cases that was cured from breast cancer? When I first met my onc & asked the question, she surprised me by saying "just one". Huh?? Just one??!!?! Well, she's been an onc over 10 years! Her answer wasn't much of any comfort to me at all!.....

[Laurie S]

Hi Jojo, are you talking about stage 4 patients, or any bc patients? I am stage 2 and I talked to my onc after the asco results came out and I heard comments in the media like "Her2 cancers are almost always fatal" etc. Which of course really freaked me out! My onc, who has practiced for about 20 years, said he had many patients who were Her2+++, node +, who never had their cancer come back. And this was BEFORE Herceptin.

Laurie

[Becky]

I am also Stage II and my onco told me that (prior to the Herceptin trial) that I had a 25% - 30% chance of recurrance (to include local or distant) but the flip side is a 70% - 75% chance of no recurrance.

[Cilla]

My mother had breast cancer 14 years ago. Now I don't remember what stage she was, I was too young to remember, but her cancer was very locally advanced and she had a lot of positive nodes. The good thing is that she never had a recurrence, and its already been 14 years ! And just like my mother, i know a few more ladies that have had cancer and its been many years for them with no recurrences ! :) I would ask that question again to your oncologist, and if she gives you the same answer, I don't know what you will do, I know I would start searching for a new oncologist ! Best of Luck !

[jojo]

Oh, sorry I meant stage 4, not earlier stages at the first diagnosis.

[StephN]

When my mets appeared, I asked my med onc a similar question.
He said NO cure. That was impossible as there could always be some cancer cells lurking around that we would try to keep under control - IF I made it to remission.
And the word "remission" does not mean "cure." Two different senses here.

Be more specific with this question, Jojo. I would like to know what she meant by "one cure." And how did she know there was NO trace of cancer in that patient's body??

[shaeff]

Here is one possible explination. There is always mutating cells in our body and many are cancerous. However, the body has natural barriers that eliminate those cells. When those barriers break down then tumors can form. Remove the tumors you remove an overactive source for those mutated cells. Maybe the natural defenses keep others at bay and maybe not. Therefore, you are never cured of cancer but you may not be affected by it in the future either. Obviously, if someone develops runaway tumors, then the natural defenses have broken down and you are more supceptible to having them break down in the future or they may be permanently broken. That is not to say that the body can maybe repair itself in time to be "cured" such as Lance Armstrong case which means you should never give up. Almost half of all people will develop "cancer" in their lifetimes, but many develop it and never have their lives affected. Cancer is mutated cells and everyone produces them, just the cancer patients don't get rid of them like they should.

I personnally have a tumor in the heart. (Actually it is the paricardial sac) I have seen it mentioned several times that tumors don't grow in or around the heart but they do on VERY rare occasions. It is so rare that we went all over the US before getting it diagnosed by a couple of doctors who personnaly had never seen one until mine. (not even in the medical text books and you can put it on the insurance forms and not even get rated up for it) They thought it would be too risky to biopsy it unless it grew. We have monitored it for 10 years and it hasn't changed or grown. I haven't even checked it in the last 6 years. My body must have broken down but somehow fixed itself.

I checked into the cellfinder machine that was mentioned earlier and found out that since there are a lot of tumors in the body all the time it gives a lot of false readings (finding pockets of tumors that the body will naturally get rid of). Therefore, the onc told us to not bother with it at this time as it will read all of the mutations, which are all over the body naturally. (a lot of false readings) Obviously, if your natural defenses have broken down where the body has lost its ability to get rid of the tumor cells then it becomes more important. We are hoping that this was a one time breakdown of the defenses and not a permanent breakdown.

Back to the question, "can you ever be cured?" No, its in all of us, but the body can repair itself so it won't affect you. You just need to be watching more carefully since if the defenses break down once, it can happen again.

Good luck,

Shaeff

[Lyn]

My onc said he hates the word CURED, until this site he would use the word remisson or palliative, I myself hate the word palliative, anyone I knew that went into pallitive care never recovered, so I scratched out the statement palliative treatment on my chemo sheet and wrote in big red letters NED or course I had to write under it what it meant. My son's stepmother had cancer of the cervix when she was younger, thinking she was cured she mentioned it to her now doctor, well it rocked her world when he said as long as you have a cervix you have cervical cancer which is not active. Go figure, what hope for the rest of us.

Hugs Lyn

[Patty H]

When I first became stage 4, I ask my Dr. the same question, he answered it by saying I was pass the point of a cure and that we would work on containment and quality of life. Patty H