Stage IV breast cancer 5 year survival rate is 20%

[Herman Munster]

I'm hoping Elizabeth beats the odds.

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_3X_How_is_breast_cancer_staged_5.asp

[Nikki Stone1]

1. I was wondering about this

:(

[Virginia Dare]

2. She's a fighter and she has much to live for...

I have nothing but respect and admiration for her, I certainly hope she can beat the odds.

[Nikki Stone1]

3. Your lips to God's ears, hon

She's one of my favorites

[Straight Shooter]

4. Ms. Edwards has a very positive attitude towards life and the best of health care.

I wish her all the best, and I believe the odds are in her favor.

[medeak]

5. she doesn't have stage 4 goodnes gracious

no lymph node or organ involvement. My cousin had the same exact thing with growth in rib cage and she's fine.

My mom was stage 4 TWELVE years ago and no reocurrence.

[Herman Munster]

6. she has stage IV

Stage IV: T0-4, N0-3, M1: The cancer, regardless of its size, has spread to distant organs such as bone, liver, or lung, or to lymph nodes far from the breast.

[Berry Cool]

7. It is crappy news. Not the worst yet, but crappy news.

I have seen so much misinformation spread around here today that I was unable to address at the time, part of it being the media message that "the cancer is no longer curable, but is still treatable."

That is not news at all. BREAST CANCER IS UNCURABLE. Period. It is uncurable from the day you get the diagnosis. Elizabeth Edwards' cancer was ALWAYS "uncurable." It didn't just become so by metastasizing. She was not "cured" or even "curable" before.

Breast cancer is not a curable form of cancer. It's not one of those that if you are free of it from five years means you are "officially cured." You aren't considered "cured" of breast cancer unless and until you die of something else. If you live to ninety and die of a stroke, well, then, congratulations--your breast cancer was "cured." Otherwise, you could always have a recurrence--two years out, five years out, 20 years out. The odds of such a recurrence will be greater or smaller based on the pathology of your particular cancer.

So really, the only thing that has changed is that Elizabeth has had a recurrence, and this time it's a metastatis. It is not "bone cancer," so a bone marrow transplant will not help. It's breast cancer that has migrated elsewhere. (Bone marrow transplants have already been tried, and have failed, as a breast cancer treatment.)

It is not good news; it's bad news. It doesn't mean she can't fight back and keep going. It just means it's going to be harder this time. And the odds are going to be worse. Which is crappy.

Oh, and those who are blaming her for getting those hormone treatments so she could have another baby? Well, maybe they were a factor, maybe not. It is possible to get the type of cancer that grows in response to hormones like estrogen and progesterone without ever once supplementing one's normal body estrogen or progesterone. In fact, you can get it without so much as ever having taken a birth-control pill. Does this happen because we ingest hormones in the food we eat? Possibly.

In any case...the thing to remember is that this has ALWAYS been something Elizabeth has to live with, she can't be blamed for it, and it's going to be a tough fight, and she will need all the love and support she can get. I think she is extremely lucky in the choice of man she married.

I will keep her in my prayers.

And in the meantime, can we do something about getting RID of this disease, instead of forcing women who get it to face the possibility of recurrence until the day they die?

edited for typos

[Nikki Stone1]

8. I wish I could nominate your post

Thank you for this

[aquart]

9. Seconded.

[Kingshakabobo]

10. Stupid question here:

Does a breast (or both) removal lessen the chance of relapse?

[Berry Cool]

16. Not necessarily.

Each case is unique. Everyone who gets diagnosed needs to make the decisions about treatment--surgery or not, and what kind if any; chemotherapy or not; radiation or not; drug therapy or not afterward--based on the individual situation, in concert, of course, with her (or sometimes his) medical professionals. There is no one kind of breast cancer and no one way to best treat it.

[Kingshakabobo]

22. Thanks for that reply.

I'm of the mind to cut and cut fast when it comes to cancer. I'm wondering why they haven't removed the rib??

My mom died of lung cancer 5 years ago. They caught the tumor when it was pretty small but it was in a bad spot so they didn't operate. She was gone in a year. My best friend's dad is fighting it right now with a little better results. He had a partial lung resection and had been OK for 3.5 years but he just had a relapse late last year. He's been undergoing something called "TomoTherapy."

Interesting story: My friend' dad was being treated, for his latest relapse, by The Mayo Clinic. They basically sent him home to die because his new tumor is in a bad spot and they wouldn't give him anymore radiation. At mine and and my friend's suggestion, he called Cancer Treatment Centers of America. They evaluated his case and told him he needed to run, not walk, to a "Tomotherapy" treatment center. THEY were too booked-up so they found an outside source to treat him. He is doing really well and his tumor has shrunk over 50%. His cough is significantly reduced and he feels much better.

So much for the Mayo Clinic. We were weary of the "pie in the sky" ads that CTA runs but we figured it would be worth a shot. I thought it was really cool that they were more interested in getting him the treatment than seeing him as a patient. Needless to say, we are all wondering why Mayo didn't offer the treatment.

[leftchick]

18. I took hormones for IVF as well and

I am under the assumption if I am at higher risk for any cancer it would be ovarian cancer. Screening is the best defense for those of us who have used infertility treatments. My prayers are with Elizabeth and her family.

[medeak]

12. it has not spread to distant organs or bone

press conference said it was localized right next to area where breast tumor was...unless someone heard something else that's what I heard.

edited to say...my Mom had every lymph node involved....to travel far it has to go through lymph nodes first. She had lymph nodes biopsied and removed. My cousin had rib cancer from being adjacent to breast involved...there was no lymph node involvement and thus not stage 4.

This is totally irresponsible

[medeak]

13. stand corrected

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Edwards

[etherealtruth]

15. Lesions in the lung and bone noted ...

i DO wish you were correct, though

[MistressOverdone]

11. I have a friend with pancreatic cancer

and her "odds" are 1% So 20 looks pretty good compared to that.

[etherealtruth]

14. I am very sorry about your friend

Terrible disease

[Berry Cool]

17. Pancreatic cancer is bad, very bad.

It usually isn't even found until it's very far gone. And then it doesn't take long.

I'm very sorry about your friend, and for you.

[medeak]

19. It's deadly but Dr. Gonzalez is curing pancreatic cancer

he "cured" my Mom with pancreatic enzymes to stimulate immune system. He is only person curing pancreatic cancer with good success rate and is doing a blind study funded by Cancer Institue of America. Can't say enough about this selfless man... he works 15 hr days.

http://www.dr-gonzalez.com/

[likesmountains 52]

20. Just to add another voice...his program did not help my friend at all..

don't know what his success depends on but it does not cure everyone..

[Raine]

21. My mother had breast cancer

she didn't make it past 4 years. I hope Elizabeth Edwards does better than my mother.

[LeftishBrit]

23. I do hope she beats the odds!

And 20% is not zero.

I know it's a different illness; but I knew someone who had had recurrent melanoma in the 1960s. Once melanoma recurs, it's usually fatal nowadays, let alone then. But she lived another 25 years and died of old age.

I also knew someone who had a brain tumour and was given such a bad prognosis that she entered a hospice. But after surgery she lived for over 20 years in good health, and died in her late 80s of an unrelated condition.

So people do beat the odds. All best thoughts to her.