Does stage 3 er+ pr+ IDC always come back

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libby2002
libby2002 Member Posts: 41
edited May 2019 in Just Diagnosed

hello -

I have read scary things online that hormone driven breast cancer always returns with distance metastasis, it's just a matter of time. I have between a stage 2b and 3a. It's reached my node, and the node has grown to 1.8cm. I am going through chemo, surgery, radiation and hormone therapy. I am very scared and feel alone. Does anyone know if this type of cancer always returns?

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  • Meow13
    Meow13 Member Posts: 4,859
    edited May 2019

    No statistically the odds are in your favor of not returning 70% vs 30%.

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  • libby2002
    libby2002 Member Posts: 41
    edited May 2019

    what have people seen with people they know? Does it tend to return?

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  • Salamandra
    Salamandra Member Posts: 1,444
    edited May 2019

    Hi Libby2002,

    I wonder if your online sources are confusing some of the information. Unlike non-hormone cancers, with hormonal cancers, is no significant cliff where chances of recurrence drop from high to low. Overall the chances of recurrence are lower, and they stay at about the same rate, without any significant drop off. But only a minority of women will have distant metastases. Of course, any is too many and we should all support research and treatment for MBC. But the odds are in your/our favor.

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited May 2019

    libby, survival statistics for the breast cancer population as a whole are a lot more meaningful and accurate than what might have happened with someone we know.

    Similarly, you should not read this site and assume that almost everyone comes back with a recurrence, because so many of the returning members you see here have recurrences. Most women do not have a recurrence, and they usually leave this site after treatment is done and never return. So the group posting here is a very unrepresentative, very skewed sample.

    As Meow mentioned, overall approx. 30% of early stage (Stage IA to IIIA) patients develop a metastatic recurrence, while 70% don't. That's a pretty old figure however, so the current rates of recurrence are likely more favorable. And that includes all types of breast cancer, some of which have better or worse survival stats.

    Hormone positive breast cancer is actually a good thing, since in addition to chemo, you also have hormone therapy available as a long-term treatment, further reducing the recurrence risk.

    So does hormone driven breast cancer always return with distant metastasis? Absolutely not. That's just a myth that is completely untrue.

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