Some people believe you are as good as dead the moment you receive a cancer diagnosis, but nothing could be further from the truth. According to the American Cancer Society, the percentage of people living five years after a diagnosis of any type of cancer shot up to 66 percent with a diagnosis after 1995 and is continuing to rise. For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival numbers rose from 75 percent in the 1970's to nearly 90 percent by 2002.1
Part of the increase in survival rates comes from a major adjustment in researchers' thinking. Instead of attempting to completely eradicate some cancers, doctors are looking for ways to corral and disable malignant cells. "There was a mind shift that happened in the 1980's," says Dr. John Glaspy, professor of medicine at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We realized that there is a power in the chronic-disease model where you can focus on a high quality of living with a disease instead of necessarily curing it. If we can have people alive, productive, and happy, that's now viewed as a very wonderful outcome."2
Right now, doctors have a large arsenal of drugs to combat breast cancer-more than any other type of cancer. By using "smart drugs," they are able to prevent cancer cells from dividing and growing. Newer drugs are being developed so quickly that Dr. Daniel Hayes, clinical director of the breast oncology programat the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, says, "It's fun to be an oncologist right now."3
"Most women who get treated for breast cancer will not have a recurrence," Dr. JoAnne Zujewski of the National Cancer Institute told Newsweek magazine. "We have excellent treatments that are getting better all the time. Mortality is down."4
More specifically, women with early-stage breast cancer who choose lumpectomy with radiation therapy live just as long as those who chose mastectomy. After twelve years, only one out of approximately ten women who had lumpectomy/radiation will have had a recurrence of cancer in the same breast.5
As of June 2002, the five-year survival rate for all women with breast cancer (including advanced cases) is 86 percent. Women with cancer that has not metastasized (spread to the lymph system or other parts of the body) have a five-year survival rate of 96 percent.6
Improvements in the detection of breast cancer and advances in treatment have led to a huge improvement in survival rates. That's why it's important for you to do a monthly self-exam and have any suspicious lumps examined by a doctor.
Don't be afraid. The future for breast cancer patients is brighter than it has ever been.
