25% of Cancer Returning after Treatments!

Ya, what Kerry said.

Also, there is no treatment that can be done to give you the 100% that it won't come back...it would be called a cure. Right?

Why don't you ask for Zometa? It reduces recurrence by 1/3 or 36%. So if you take that, you can add 5-7% risk reduction. Something to ask your onc I would think.

And....I just saw your stats.........12 positive nodes...I think a 25% risk of recurrence is quite good. I think you should be celebrating!

Stats are not for an individual  - they are for a group and translated to determine treatment for people with similar diagnosis'.  So if 100 women just like you were standing in a room together 75 of them would be NED in 5 years.

I like to compare bc stats to the weather - If I hear there is a 75% chance it is gonna be sunny, I am at the beach, babe!

Hi Loretta

I was given 50/50 odds.....and that was after mastectomy, chemo, radiation, ovary removal and zometa.  But I just continue to think I am in the good 50% no recurrance! before treatment if I had only done the mastectomy my recurance rate was 75%. .....I am now almost 2 years since diagnosis and looking forwatd to the next 50 years!

Lori

Don't forget that exercise reduces the relative risk of recurrence to .36 for Stage 3.  This is three to five hours of brisk walking per week.  (Michelle Holmes, Physical Activity and Survival after Breast Cancer Diagnosis, JAMA 2005)

I don't need any more incentive to get moving, although the benefit isn't quite as great for Stage 2.  Plus exercise appears to mitigate the side effects of most treatments from chemo (which is where I am) though hormonal therapy. 

I am beyond signed up.

Precioustime, My diagnosis is quite like yours and my treatment was identical to yours. My onc told me in 2003 I had a 70% chance of it not returning. However--and this is a bit of a bummer, so brace yourself--er pr positive breast cancer has a long shelf life. More than half the recurrences occur after the 5 year mark. Others types of cancer tend to not relapse after 5 years. I took AI's for 6.5 years and recently had an oncotype dx done with a fairly low score--18. so he is modifiying my chances of recurrence to 20% now and says it will stay 20% for the next ten years.

By the way your Grade 2 is good!

If you only have 5 years left to live, would you want to look back on it and think "I screwed it up stressing about my prognosis" or would you want to live to the hilt? If you live 30 more years, same question...

How does her2+++ play into this? Does anybody know the odds for Her2 positive with triple expression? (That is different than triple positive....since there are triple her2 gals who are er/pr neg as well....) Make sense?

Koryn,

Her2 +++....means that you are highly Her2 positive. I think its the FISH test that rates like this. Some woman would test as Her2 ++, and should still be considered Her2  positive and get Herceptin.

The stats are a little different for Er+/ Her2+ VS Er-/Her2+.

bejuce,

I can't seem to shake off my Coke Zero. Im trying, but I dont drink alcohol or smoke....I have to have some quilty pleasure.

My doctor gave me similar stats re: combo treatment, but it was over a 10-year period.

Something like out of 100 women, with chemo and hormone, 78 of them would have no recurrence in 10 years. Five would be dead of other causes unrelated to cancer (such as car wreck, etc), and the rest would have a recurrence. 

I'll take it considering without any treatment, only 45 would not have a recurrence in 10 years.

Also remember part of that reoccurence rate is LOCAL reoccuerence which is well bad but not as bad-can still be cured puresue.