Olivia-Newton John's breast cancer returns after 25 years

I just recently celebrated 7 years since my diagnosis, and was noticing that I no longer worried about recurrence. This news kind of threw me for a loop. Feeling a little tearful.

So terrible.  Do we know anything about her initial diagnosis?  Was it early?

With zero information about her initial diagnosis and treatment, I am not alarmed, or surprised.

I wonder what kind of treatment she had way back in 1992. I'm trying to tell myself that the treatments we are are getting now are making a positive difference in our futures. Did we even have tamoxifen or AIs back then? Was it ER/PR+ or HER2+?

Claire in AZ

Thanks wallycat! If she were Stage III, wouldn't chemo be automatically indicated?

I read she refused chemo first because she was scared about the SEs then she had chemo and thought it was not too bad at all... but there was no mention about radiation and hormonal.

According to this interview, she had a mastectomy and chemotherapy upon diagnosis.

And just edited to add... 25 years "cancer free" isn't anything to sneeze at. Also, as others have said, with today's medical options/treatment, she could very well live many, many years with this metastasis to her bones. It still sucks, but doesn't mean hope is lost.

Hi, just saw this topic so thought I would add that Olivia has a wellness centre for cancer here in Australia, her website is onjcancercentre.org I live in West Australia and on the news tonight they said that she would be combining radiation along with natural wellness therapies (I think from her cancer centre). Her cancer metastised to her sacrum.

I am also in Australia and the news reports here say that Olivia did have chemo after her first diagnosis. I am assuming she has had a recurrence. There has been no mention of a new primary.

I was very sad to hear this news. She is a lovely lady. Wishing her well.

She is going to use cannabis oil as part of her own personal cocktail as well as radiotherapy to the sacrum..........but its depresing news, after so long it would be the last thing you would think about........I have back problems and had never linked posible cáncer to them but now...................I suppose any symptom we get now is possible cáncer........

I am in the process of creating better Woods but no one really appreciates that life is much harder work post cáncer diagnosis, it really takes a lot more emotional energy, well it does with me but then I feel stuck as still waiting for reconstruction 5 years on.............................

I think 25 years cancer free is something quite remarkable! If it's any comfort, my sister had BC in her mid twenties. She had a modified radical mastectomy with recon. She died about 31 years later from something totally unrelated. No recurrence.

"... it is the fear that one will have to deal with all of the cancer-ick again..."

I understand and share that fear, but I look at it differently.

Cancer is prevalent in society, and tends to affect people more as they get older. There is a fair bit of cancer in my family. I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 49; should I live to my natural life expectancy, I could expect about another 40 years of life after that first diagnosis. With all those years ahead of me, I've always expected that I most likely will have to deal with cancer again. Maybe it will be a recurrence of my first breast cancer. Maybe it will be new breast cancer. Maybe it will be a different type of cancer. As I wrote recently in another thread, there is unfortunately no card that gets stamped that says that we've had cancer once, we've served our time and we can't be called up again. The unfortunate fact is that we are all just as likely as any other person our age, or possibly even more likely (given that we already have a personal history of cancer), to develop cancer again, whether it be breast cancer or another type of cancer.

So I am never surprised when someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past is diagnosed with cancer again. Breast cancer recurrences tend to occur within the first 10 years, but there are plenty of exceptions where a recurrence is not discovered until 15 or 20 years (or more) after the initial diagnosis. Anyone at any time can develop a new breast cancer primary or another type of cancer. As I said in my earlier post, we don't know if Olivia Newton-John has been diagnosed with a recurrence or with a new primary that has spread. The media doesn't understand the distinction; when they write that her "cancer has returned" or "recurred", they just mean that she has cancer again - they are not stating a medical diagnosis indicating a recurrence rather than a new primary. I've read quite a few articles since the word came about about her diagnosis; some of the descriptions of her diagnosis seem to suggest that this is a recurrence but there are just as many others that suggest that she may have a new primary that has spread - none of the descriptions are specific enough to know for sure which it is. From the press releases from Olivia's side, it doesn't appear that this is information that's been released, and frankly, it's no one's business.

It's really unfortunate that Olivia Newton-John is dealing with mets. I'm sad whenever I hear about anyone being diagnosed with mets, and in her case, well, she may be rich and famous and she's had a fabulous career, but she's had some really tough luck in her life. It's sad, but to me there is nothing shocking or surprising. It's just what happens in life.

my gf (also had BC) texted me this news...it is devastating to those of us who hope and pray that the further out you are the safer you are and at 25 years I would think the chances are very very slim of it coming back -I understand that they are not zero BUT STILL!!!! wow its a shocker for sure. My other friends were dumbfounded that this could happen - really not common knowledge for most of the population that BC can come back after so much time....

I doubt it was a new primary - she had a single mastectomy with her first diagnosis so if she did have a new primary I would think it would be in her one remaining breast - doesn't sound like it but then again I know there is so much misinformation out there who knows how the media interprets

SummerAngel, I believe the quote you provided was speculation from a doctor who does not know the details of Olivia Newton-John's diagnosis any more than we do, from the high level and non-specific press reports. I think the doctor is speculating that if this is a recurrence and it took 25 years to show itself, it must mean that the cancer itself is not very aggressive or fast growing. And if the mets is small and in just one location, then localized treatment might for now be sufficient, possibly in combination with an AI. That all seems reasonable, but it's total speculation.