When R U considered cancer free?

I am not sure whether  we ever are. I consider myself NED.I hope to be celebrating my 7th year as a survivor next January. It will be interesting  to see what others post.

I considered myself cancer free when I finished ALL treatment.

There's always the risk that it'll come back (I was 12 years betweeen primary and secondary disease), so I think you will always have to stay extra vigilant, and perhaps consider yourself  NED, rather than cured. Most oncologists don't use the word "cured", as it is misleading.It takes only one cell (which of course can't be detected on any test), to escape, and lie dormant for "x" amount of time, and it will eventually set off more problems. It's really a matter of semantics, but to be strictly accurate, as mrsb said, we can never be 100% sure. Good luck with your ongoing treatment.

I am six and a half years out.

I was at my GP's last week, on a cancer unrelated visit, and she referred to me as  'a cancer patient'  It quite shocked me, I came home and had a good old cry, even tho' I knew it was an open ended diagnosis. I suppose I like to bury my head in the sand, and try and erase the memory of all the tx's. To me they DO seem to be in the past, but NOT to my Dr, she was bent on raking up the past, and letting me know how she sees me.

Sent shivers down my spine !

Isabella.

Lexis, I hate "cancer patient", too, especially now that I'm more than 18 months out from my dx, 14 months past my last chemo, and well into my 2nd year of Arimidex.

However, there are words (names) for people with chronic diseases.  People who have diabetes are called "diabetics", even if the diabetes is under control.  People who have lost limbs are called "amputees", even if the surgery was long ago. People with Alzheimer's Disease are "Alzheimer's patients," of course.  People with tuberculosis have long been called "TB patients," and people with HIV AIDS are routinely called "AIDS patients."

So we aren't alone.  I think what we find discomforting is exactly the question that started this thread:  When are we considered (and when can we consider ourselves) cancer-free? That's the key question for someone with a chronic disease:  When can I consider it "gone"?

It's my understanding -- and I'm beginning to accept this -- that I might think of myself as "cured" any time I like; but from a medical perspective, I'll never be free of the shadow of a recurrence. Even that little white Arimidex pill I take every day might only be postponing a recurrence -- keeping residual cancer cells in check, rather than killing them. That's one reason why some doctors are urging patients to continue on AI's after their 5 years are finished.

So, as much as we may hate it, many of us will be treated as "cancer patients" by health care personnel for the rest of our lives.

[Note added in edit:  I know; it sucks.] 

otter

None of us knows if she is cancer-free, The man on the street does not know if he is cancer-free. Remember that breast cancer is a collection of many disparate diseases, known collectively as breast cancer. Inflammatory tends, I have heard, to be cause for celebration if you make it past five years.

Hormone receptive tends to hide out, dormant, and then reawaken due to some unknown stimulus. Sometimes decades later, I have read more than once.

I am grateful I am labelled :"cancer patient" virtually everywhere. Friday I went back to the facility which overlooked my breast cancer for ten years, despite my pointing out such things as lumps under my arm. (All I  ever got was a xeroxed form letter each time telling me no abnormalities were found despite a 5 cm tumor I finally discovered in the shower.) What a difference this time! Lots of care taking many mammograms, some with magnification, a sonogram, much time spent with the radiologist on duty. New lump was finally diagnosed as a fatty lipoma, and they have offered to do a surgical biopsy and  MRI if I am still concerned. All this took place within three days of my going to my oncologist with the new-found lump. No waiting interminably this time.

My dentist is aware I am "cancer patient" status and checked on something about my treatment before I had an implant. He averted a disaster because I checked his box yes.

Sometimes we try hard to find commonalities with each other because, lets face it, it is hard doing this alone, but even if we could locate a person with exactly the same diagnosis, exactly the same day as us, with the same treatment, we could likely have different outcomes. The unpredictability of breast cancer is what makes it so maddening. When you are diagnosed with breast cancer your new reality becomes that you will never know if you are cancer-free. But, hey, do you really know for instance, is there is a dangerous aneurysm lurking in your body that is threatening to burst at any time? Or a clot that is heading for your heart? Or a dirty bomb waiting to go off near your city? You have always had to lived with uncertainty; add one more and go on enjoying life!

Lexis, well it pisses me off too. It seems my life is forever changed!!!!! I just hate dealing with all of this.

Great discussion. I have wondered myself and get really different impressions: one breast onc said "you are cured"; my gyn says I'm now a 'high risk patient for ovarian cancer because I'm a bc patient', and getting life insurance has become impossible because I'm a cancer patient. Not to mention the issue of my "preexisting condition" ... for health insurances. Oh, how confusing ...

Loved reading everyone's posts.  I want, and am trying, to believe that I am now in a better space to convince myself I am "cancer free".  Cutting off both boobs, taking some drug for 5 years will give me some peace of mind to carry on, hopefully for many years to come.  The new boobs I have are what I call a trick with mirrors, it is all an illusion, surely I can continue to live in an illusion of NED - whatever gets you through the night as John Lennon said.  We will never be cancer free because it is hard for us to convince ourselves we will be cancer free, but I am doing my darndest.  No one on this planet knows what is around the corner.

Weesa I loved your post - so many amazing women here.

big hugs

Helena