The scary stuff!!!

[Bill]

Hello, Ladies! I've got an aunt, dx'ed with BC in the early 70's. We correspond almost everyday. A good family friend in AZ, the same thing. Cancer does NOT always reoccur. There are a few things to consider here. One major mind-set that we need to overcome- "what has happened in the past does not control what will happen in the future". Like VI and others have said, there is always something new in the works. Please think back to that first moment when you first heard about Herceptin and the fast-track FDA approval. For most of us, it was out-of-the-blue on the news, right? Right now, everybody take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, and try to picture what will be on the news on October 14th. We can't. (well, I can, but you can't, anyhow...) There are so many advances in science and medical technologies coming our way at an ever-increasing rate. While we sleep comfortably in our beds tonight, there are countless people studying and working on our behalf. A statistic is written in stone. Kick that stone aside, and by whatever means necessary, write your own future.

It is definitely true that most women diagnosed with early breast cancer do not ever recur. For example, my Mom was diagnosed almost 18 years ago, and is fine.

On the other hand, women with stage 4 breast cancer, such as myself, by definition already have metastases. While I very much wish that Becky were correct that only 50% of women with stage 4 breast cancer recur, that simply is not true. (Maybe she means stage 3??) Almost all women with stage 4 disease eventually recur. That is why it is considered to be treatable not curable.

When the NY Times described Elizabeth Edwards' mets diagnosis it stated,
"According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, only 26.1 percent of patients with Stage 4 breast cancer live five years or more, but those figures are by nature outdated and do not reflect recent medical advances." (Keep in mind that these stats are for survival at 5 years and not for recurrance over a lifetime.) I hope and believe that the stats are better now, but, unfortunately, they are not close to 50% survival for metastatic breast cancer. I don't mean to be negative. I just want to correct the misinformation that was posted.