ILC recurrance statistics

BillysWife,

Welcome and thank you for posting! 10 years is great and you shouldn't let fear of recurrence keep you from enjoying the moment!

There are many, many members here well past the 10 year mark -- but most of those members are no longer posting in this community, as they are out and enjoying their lives! They will however, check back in here and there and let us know how they're doing.

Please don't feel hopeless -- you're doing great! For some more inspiration, check out these threads:

• Success Stories!
• Long Term BC Survivors

And, read stories from Members for 10 Years or More on our main Breastcancer.org site.

We hope this helps!

--The Mods

Hey! Congrats on 10 years! I don't think it is time for you to worry at all. You have already bitten so many statistics, so what is going to stop you from your 92 goal? I can tell you about my grandmother, although I don't know a lot about her dx, don't know what type it was, but still, whenever I start to worry I remember her. She was dx first time when she was 52, stage lllb, with extremely aggressive form of cancer, she got really terrible prognosis from her doctor, had recurrence 10years later at 62, (she even refuzed chemo for recurrence, just radiation) and after that lived 20 more healthy years and died from a hart attack last year in 82.

We are not our cancers. Sure, anyone dx once is always fully aware that a possibility exists it may come back, but you are not a statistic. And I agree...how dare a medical professional compare you to other patients and worse still ...SHARE that with you! Interestingly, I just had my onc visit in November and she said that many of her patients never get BC recurrence (of course, there will always be some since cancer is evil) but she said a good majority of her patients are "cured" in the respect that they never present with another cancer ever again. She said she has several patients in the 30 year range (we live in a small town so not a lot of patients in general).

Did they tell you what kind of cancer they had? Did they tell you what type of treatments they had (or refused)? did they tell you how well these people will do now that a recurrence occurred? Did they tell you if these women stuck with any protocol that was suggested to them? There are newer treatments. 20 years ago, these gals may not have gotten the benefits or the precision of treatment, that many of us are seeing today. There are immuno-therapy treatments, new anti-hormonals, better diagnostics and more precise surgery.

For that medical professional to imply that because it happened to someone it will happen to you....is not a medical professional at all. Sure, some cancers do come back...but if they knew which ones, none of us would be sitting here feeling like cows to slaughter, would we? Plus....if she "gave" you 10 more years, imagine what research may hold as an arsenal in our fight!! Go live your life and plan on proving them wrong!!

oh my- what everyone else has said is true-- here's something to help you --I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with a cyst (different part of the body). They told her that there was a 75% chance that it would be malignant. When we talked, I have to admit, my mind went right to the 75%, but what I said to her was "there is no reason you should not be in the 25%". And that is what we held onto-and guess what--she was!!!!!

I am 7 years out-- my onc told me that ILC was slow growing-- so I take heart in that-- also, I think the way we are followed helps us find things earlier… I admit-I sometimes get a pain or a reaction to something and I have some anxiety, but it is fairly low level now. You are technically correct, ER+ can indeed come back, but lots of other things can happen as well…. you know, the old "I could get hit by a bus" tomorrow theory!

I am glad you have come around…. and are looking to the future. There is no reason not to…when I get in a funk about this I find that planning ahead or doing something else helps.

I think, in many ways, we are lucky. We know so much better than anyone else how precious it all is and we appreciate it so much more. We are followed closely, we are more in tune than most with own bodies, we are our own best advocates and we know how to support others in the same situation.

glad you called them back and let them know how it bothered you…. they need to hear that their words make a difference!

Happy New Year!

I love this thread!!! Needed some positivity today, and here it is. Happy New Year, wonderful ladies!