When am I considered cancer free?

Stephanie,

I think it's a great question and look forward to seeing other answers.  

Thanks for posting.

Charmaine 

I would just say pick a day that feels "right" for you, and use that! Some people celebrate years from day of Diagnosis, some end of active treatment, some date of Surgery.

My onc told me we "removed the cancer" with Surgery, so, to me that seems a good as day as any to count from.

For insurance purposes, it is five years.  But I say, go ahead, pick a date.  You are cancer free, hon. 

God bless.

xoxo

hmmmm...... so five years of Tamoxifin doesn't figure into the equation?!  That makes me feel better!

I choose the date of my surgery...that is the day I feel I was cancer free.....

Research and data now show that 75 percent of Breast Cancer Pts. are cured upon surgery, that means cured it is taken care of. This is for all stages together. My Onc brought me this data upon diagnoses.  Other woman that were not cured upon surgery and have lingering cells will or won't be helped by chemo or hormone therapy etc.  He estimates between 5 and 8 percent are put into long term remission with chemo, but stats are getting better with Herceptin and AI's. The new stats are not available as they have not been out long enought to see long term survival.

I can' t remember it has been a year and a half, but have appt in 3 weeks will try and get copy of data. He quotes these numbers every time I see him. He is well thought of and probably the busiest Onc in PHX. Voted number 1 by his peers and been in practice for 35 years so I assume he has seen it all. Of course I do remember glancing at data when he quoted it the first time.

I guess in the end it is a great number but only if you are in the 75 percent, we either recur or we don't.

I think my reply came out wrong as I was being somewhat sarcastic  as it isn't great if you are not in the 75 percent. Sorry I guess my sarcasm does not translate well.

There are no acceptable recurrance numbers in my mind.

I think we are "survivors" from day of Dx....for example, for me, I will be a 5 year survivor Nov 3rd 2013.  But this is a little different than saying cancer free.  When I woke up from my mastectomy my surgeon was hovering over me and said "you're cancer free".  First words out of his mouth.  It was nice hearing those words and I hope they turn out to be true. 

My surgeon said the words " there is no residual cancer at this time" ......but I have not started rads yet ( chemo complete) so I haven't decided the date I will chose to deem myself "cancer free? / NED ? /Remission?  as my pathology showed ADH.. ??  Pathology date after surgery?  After rads are completed & hopefully zapped out all the ADH?   Basically I just know this......2009 has been a year from HELL!   I do agree that we are survivors from the date of DX.   

ANNIEALSO,

So does it mean that if we are still NED at year 6 then we will be able to increase our life insurance amount ??  

According to the FAQ on the Breast Cancer Action site -

2 years is a significant milestone, because the majority of recurrences happen within 2 years. 

While you are never cured, your percentage of  risk goes down every year. 

This is such an interesting debate.  I once asked my ovarian cancer oncologist about being cured. i.e. after five years you're cured was what I understood/thought.  My question was when do you count the 5 years:  from diagnosis, surgery or completion of all treatments.

The first thing she said is "I don't like to use the word cured."  I so appreciate her honesty.  She then went on to say that she would count it from the date of completion which in my case is June 30, 2003.  The last time I was at her clinic I saw her fellow who said that I had beaten the odds.  An intersting point as well I once told her that my mother's ovarian cancer came back 4 years after completion of all treatments.  She commented that at 4 years you're considered 75% cured!  Hmmm, there's that other "C" word.

Before I got BC I was asked by someone if I was cancer free.  I said Yes, not really knowing for sure that I was but one would assume once it's been cut out and the chemo and rads have supposedly taken care of any residual cells, to the best of our knowledge we're cancer free.  I see my BC onc on Thurs so I'm going to ask her about this.

I would be interested in reading the stats on percentage of risk for each year out from cancer.  I think that for me, I will feel a whole lot better at 5 yrs out, because I'm not quite one yr out from DX and I still feel the overwhelming fear. 

My personal take on this is that no one ever knows if they are cancer free.  Not even those who have never been diagnosed.