I don't understand something.

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CAMommy
CAMommy Member Posts: 437
edited June 2015 in Just Diagnosed

everything I read says for me (with DCIS) I have a cure rate of nearly 100%. But I read this today:

While treatable, metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is incurable, between 20 and 30 percent of women with early stage breast cancer go on to develop MBC. Median survival is three years; annually, the disease takes 40,000 lives.

So how can you have a reoccurance risk of say 8% after lumpectomy and radiation (or 1-2% after mastectomy)yet a 20-30% chance of metastatic breast cancer if you have early stage BC. This is confusing me. And frankly scaring me.

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  • MusicLover
    MusicLover Member Posts: 4,225
    edited June 2015

    Try not to read all of the statistics they are very confusing, with DCIS you have the best odds of beating this and stay vigilant. 

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  • CatsRus
    CatsRus Member Posts: 310
    edited June 2015

    CAMommy, if you are diagnosed with BC, DCIS is the best result, and considered the best 'cure' rate. Early stage BC takes into account IDC too with many variables and risks of reoccurrence. Take comfort in your DCIS diagnosis, but be vigilant as MusicLover suggests. Good luck.

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  • CAMommy
    CAMommy Member Posts: 437
    edited June 2015

    thank you for your feed back. I am learning those statistics don't include DCIS, DCIS is kind of it's own thing.

    This is all so new to me. Thanks for your patience. :/

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  • YoungTurkNYC
    YoungTurkNYC Member Posts: 334
    edited June 2015

    CAMommy,

    Yes - DCIS is its own thing.  The answer to your question is that for early stage cancer (IDC Stage I and II, not DCIS), those percentages go off of disease free survival rates for the first 5 years.  So, if you have a recurrence at 5 years and 1 month, you would have been counted as one of the people who fell in the [92%][whatever the percentage may be] with no recurrence in those first 5 years. I think what confuses people is that these percentages that are given are not cure rates, they are disease free survival rates, usually within the first five years after diagnosis.  Many people recur after the first 5 years after diagnosis.  We need to read the fine print and exactly understand what the percentage really means when a percentage is given to us.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2015

    those #s are for early stage invasive bc (stage 1 and 2); not for DCIS which is non-invasive, stage 0. . (DCIS cannot metastasize--spread to other organs or areas of the body-- only invasive bc can).

    Anne

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