How long do people with breast cancer live. Survival in breast cancer

The third stage of breast cancer in medical practice is called the stage at which the cancer has spread to several nearby lymph nodes. In addition, doctors designate the third stage of the development of cancer when the size of the tumor exceeds 5 centimeters and the disease has spread to at least one lymph node, but has not reached distant organs.

In the third stage, the cancer sometimes approaches the chest wall or the skin of the breast.

Such a diagnosis can come as a shock to any patient, but it is important to understand that cancer treatments are constantly improving, and in this regard, the life expectancy of people with cancer is growing from year to year.

In the current article, we will look at the survival rate for stage 3 breast cancer, as well as talk about available therapeutic strategies, remission, and ways to psychologically deal with the disease.

Life expectancy and survival rate

The life expectancy of patients with cancer depends on many factors.

According to the US National Cancer Institute, women with stage III breast cancer have a 72% chance of surviving a five-year period from the date of diagnosis.

This means that 72 out of every 100 women live 5 years from the date of detection of stage 3 cancer.

For comparison, the same figure for zero or first stages of breast cancer is almost 100%, for the second stage - 93%, and for the fourth - about 22%.

If we talk about breast cancer in men, then in this case the survival rate is the same 100% for the first and zero stages, 87% for the second stage and 25% for the fourth.

However, it should be noted that all the given values ​​are averaged. Individual indicators of life expectancy depend on many factors, which, for example, include the following:

• health status;
• tumor size;
• body's response to treatment.

According to the American Cancer Society, the quality of cancer care is constantly improving.

In addition, it must be understood that the studies on the basis of which the above figures were obtained reflect the situation five years ago. That is, at present, the survival rate may already be higher than somewhat outdated statistics show.

If a patient wishes to obtain a more accurate life expectancy, then he should discuss this issue with his doctor.

Treatment

Treatment for stage III breast cancer depends on individual factors and usually involves a combination of medication and surgery.

Medical treatment typically includes chemotherapy, targeted therapy, hormone therapy, or a combination of the three.

Chemotherapy destroys cancer cells with special anti-cancer drugs. This type of treatment is associated with significant side effects, but in most cases these effects disappear soon after the person completes the course of treatment.

Side effects of chemotherapy include the following:

• increased risk of developing infections;
• anemia;
• bruising and bleeding;
• hair loss;
• nausea;
• diseases oral cavity and gums;
• skin and nail problems;
• weakening of memory and concentration;
• symptoms.
• fatigue.

The treatment plan can start with an appointment medicines, which help to reduce the size of the tumor for its safer removal by the surgeon.

If the tumor cannot be reduced enough to perform a successful operation to remove it, the doctor may recommend that the entire breast be removed. This procedure is called a mastectomy.

Surgery to remove a tumor is commonly referred to as a lumpectomy.

Surgery remains the main therapeutic tool in the fight against cancer.

After surgery, the patient may be offered radiation (radiation) therapy or chemotherapy. With these treatments, doctors try to reduce the chances of cancer coming back.

If a small tumor is found in a person, the doctor may immediately suggest surgery to the patient, and then proceed to chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Some forms of cancer respond well to hormone therapy. In such cases, doctors prescribe patients to take hormones for many years after completing the initial course of treatment.

Remission

Remission is a condition in which the symptoms of cancer completely or almost completely stop bothering the patient. Remission can be complete or partial.

Partial remission means that some of the cancer has disappeared after a course of treatment. A complete remission means that doctors no longer detect any signs of cancer in the patient.

Remission does not necessarily indicate that there is no cancer in the body. She only says that doctors cannot find signs of the disease.

It is possible that after remission, the cancer will never return. However, no one can guarantee that he left the body, so the likelihood of the return of cancer will always exist.

If the cancer comes back, doctors will call it recurrent cancer. Sometimes people are forced to manage cycles of remission and relapse over many years.

For some people, cancer neither develops nor shrinks. In such cases, doctors say that the cancer is controlled or stable.

Psychological struggle

Despite the regular improvement in the quality of cancer treatment, many people panic and experience severe psychological trauma after such a diagnosis.

When people are told about cancer, they may experience a wide range of emotions. Each patient reacts to such news differently.

In such situations, talking to family members or people who have a similar diagnosis can be psychologically beneficial. Patients who have learned about cancer are also advised not to overexert themselves and take more time for themselves.

During the period of treatment for breast cancer, people can experience significant psychological and physiological changes. For example, chemotherapy can have a significant impact on quality of life.

After a mastectomy, women often begin to realize that breast removal has become a serious psychological challenge for them. radical operations often affect the sense of one's own identity, sexuality and negatively affect relationships with the opposite sex. Such problems often affect young women.

You can search for people with similar problems not only in your city, but also in the global computer network

Some patients under the influence of hormonal therapy experience prolonged side effects which include fatigue, cognitive changes, and menopausal symptoms.

In such situations, it is helpful for people to look for support groups. They do not exist in all small towns, but they are widely represented on the Internet.

During the treatment and rehabilitation period, members of the medical team also help manage stress.

Conclusion

Life expectancy and survival rates for stage 3 breast cancer are indicators that are constantly improving due to the increase in the effectiveness of traditional methods of treatment and the emergence of new ones.

The current chance of surviving five years with stage 3 breast cancer is 72% for women and 75% for men. Doctors begin to count the survival period from the day the diagnosis is made.

However, one should not rely too much on these figures, since life expectancy depends on many individual factors. More detailed information on the prognosis of survival for the patient is able to provide the attending physician.

In our country, the survival rate of all patients with breast cancer, who were under observation for 5 years, averages 55%. But these are average indicators, they can be different depending on the stage at which breast cancer was detected and treated.

What Factors Affect Breast Cancer Survival?

The life expectancy in breast cancer is affected by the following factors: the size of the tumor, the presence or absence of metastases to regional lymph nodes, the presence or absence of receptors for female sex hormones in the tumor, the histological type of the tumor, infiltration of surrounding tissues, metastasis to distant organs, and others. The number of such factors increases as the biology of the tumor process is studied.

Influence of the state of regional lymph nodes

In the absence of metastases to nearby lymph nodes, relapses of the disease within five years after treatment occur in an average of 20% of cases. The ten-year survival rate is 65–80%.

In the presence of metastases in 1–3 lymph nodes, the disease returned within five years after treatment in 30–40% of cases, and the ten-year survival rate was 35–65%.

Metastases in five or more lymph nodes: recurrence within five years - 54-82%, ten-year survival 13-24%.

Influence of tumor size

An increase in the size of the primary tumor in the mammary gland directly affects the life expectancy of patients. Thus, 88% of patients survive a twenty-year period without recurrence with a tumor size of up to 1 cm and about 65% with a primary tumor diameter of 2 cm or more.

The degree of involvement of regional lymph nodes in the tumor process depends on the size of the tumor. So, with a tumor size of less than 1 cm in diameter, the lymph nodes are involved in less than 20–30% of cases. With a tumor of 1-2 cm, this percentage increases to 27-39, and with a size of 2-3 cm - up to 29-57.

The presence or absence of receptors for female sex hormones in the tumor

The presence of receptors for female sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone - ER and RP) in the tumor is a good prognostic sign, since hormone therapy can be used as a treatment - this increases the chances of patients to survive.

Histological type of tumor - how it affects the survival of patients

According to the histological type, tumors are divided into favorable and unfavorable in terms of survival. Tumors with favorable histological structure have higher survival rates. Favorable ones include tubular, mucous, papillary forms, and unfavorable ones include infiltrative ductal and lobular cancer.

These receptors are located on chromosomes and are referred to as growth factor receptors. They are secreted by both normal cells of the mammary gland and cancer cells, but in different quantities (cancer cells are several times more). A high content of this factor indicates a poor prognosis of the disease: a malignant type of cancer, rapid growth tumors and resistance to treatment. Blocking this factor can significantly slow down tumor growth.

Today there is a drug that can block HER-2-neu receptors - this is Herceptin, which contains antibodies to the tumor.

How long breast cancer patients live depends on many factors.

Breast cancer is a common type that affects women of all ages. Represents a number of malignant neoplasms. In women, the disease causes horror, because the mortality rate is extremely high. However, over the past ten years, survival rates for breast cancer have increased. This is due to progress in medicine: new diagnostic markers have appeared that help in identifying pathology at an early stage, and new effective approaches to treating patients have been formed.

As mentioned above, breast cancer is diagnosed in women of various ages: from 20 to 90 years. Medicine recorded two age peaks of incidence: at the age of thirty and after fifty years. These two periods are closely related to hormonal background. In the occurrence of the disease, a hereditary character can be traced: if there are women with cancer in the family, the probability of detecting a pathology in female descendants increases tenfold. But not only heredity determines the oncological prognosis. Factors that determine the risk of tumor formation:

• Hormonal imbalance (high content of female sex hormones - estrogen).
• Menstrual disorders (irregularity, early onset of menarche, late menopause).
• Endocrine diseases of the thyroid gland.
• Burdened obstetric and gynecological history (abortions, first late birth, gynecological diseases).
• Rejection breastfeeding child.

Survival prognosis

Women first of all ask themselves the question: how long do they live with breast cancer. It is impossible to answer unequivocally and give an exact answer. Life expectancy depends on:

• the type of cancer and its aggressiveness;
• localization;
• the presence of metastases;
• concomitant lesions of the lymph nodes;
• sensitivity to estrogen and progesterone;
• timeliness of treatment.

In determining the prognosis, the stage of the diagnosed tumor is of paramount importance.

Stages of cancer

1 stage. Small tumors with a diameter of no more than two centimeters. Nearby tissues are not affected. The prognosis is the most favorable, the survival rate for 5 years reaches 95%.

2 stage. It is divided into 2 subtypes:

• 2a - the primary focus in the chest is up to two centimeters, up to 5 axillary lymph nodes are affected.
• 2b - the tumor grows up to 5 centimeters, germination in the regional nodes does not occur. The percentage of survival after 5 years is 50-80%.

3 stage. The size of the formation exceeds 5 centimeters. Axillary lymph nodes are involved in the process. Metastases are found in organs chest, in the lungs, bones of the sternum. In the third stage, survival does not exceed 50%.

4 stage. The tumor grows to an indeterminate size. Multiple metastases are found in most organs. This degree of damage to the body is extremely neglected. Five-year survival is provided only by 10% of the diseased women.

The above survival statistics refer exclusively to patients after surgery to remove a breast tumor. A woman who prefers folk and other non-traditional methods of treatment reduces her own chances of recovery! In comparison, without surgery, the five-year survival rate is only 15%.

Symptoms that help suspect cancer

A woman alone or with the help of a man can feel the formation or induration in the chest. Changes in the nipple require attention: ulceration, retraction, appearance spotting when pressed. Having found a number of these symptoms, you need to see a doctor as soon as possible. In the later stages, cancer is manifested by increased fatigue, deterioration, shortness of breath, cough, bone pain.

The decisive factor in the early detection of cancer is the examination, which every girl of any age is required to undergo annually. Until the age of forty, it includes ultrasonography mammary glands. After forty, a mammogram is performed at intervals of two years. After fifty years, screening should be done regularly, once a year. Remember, the examination should be carried out even in the absence of complaints. Often, cancer is discovered by chance, and the sooner it is found, the greater the chance of recovery.

Form of breast cancer

The shape is determined by the ability of cancer cells to penetrate into nearby tissues, as well as the source of development. Determining the exact type of tumor will help in the future in the appointment of the most effective therapy. The classification according to the types of cancer pathology is given:

• ductal.
• Lobular.
• Hormone dependent.
• Luminal.
• Inflammatory.
• Triple negative.

duct type

The most common form of breast cancer and the most favorable for patients. It can be invasive (penetrating into adjacent tissues) or non-invasive (carcinoma in situ). The tumor forms in the wall of the milk duct. More often detected during routine examinations. The prognosis depends on the stage of the identified pathology.

Lobular type

The tumor is located in the upper inner part of the breast, grows from the milk-producing structure - the milk lobule. Often cancer cells are sensitive to hormones, so hormone therapy turns out to be effective. In the early stages, it is difficult to diagnose, but successfully treatable. In the later stages, it proceeds aggressively, quickly metastasizes to other organs.

Hormone dependent type

The tumor includes estrogen and progesterone receptors, so doctors direct their efforts to block them. The specified type of cancer proceeds secretly, obvious symptoms are not detected. Therefore, the disease is detected only at 2-3 stages. With relapse after treatment, the outcome is fatal.

Luminal type

The name comes from the luminal cells from which the cancer grows. It is divided into 2 subspecies: A and B. Type A is considered the most favorable, it is characterized by cell sensitivity to sex hormones and low cell division activity. Type B is more severe, poorly treatable. Most often among all patients it is detected in young girls, but in general it is recognized as a rare type.

Inflammatory type

The flow resembles inflammation of the mammary gland - mastitis. The chest is swollen, painful to the touch, the skin is reddened. Because of this similarity, a misdiagnosis is often made, as a result of which time is lost for treatment. Unlike mastitis, there is no high temperature.

triple negative type

This is the name of tumors that are insensitive to estrogen and progesterone, plus there is no expression of the HER2 gene. It is the most aggressive and malignant type of cancer. Targeted therapy (delivery of drugs directly to cancer cells) is ineffective, since the tumor lacks all receptors. Insensitive to most types of therapy. Survival in this case depends on the stage of the diagnosed cancer.

Anticancer therapy

Cancer cannot be treated! Therapy of the disease is complex, including surgical methods, radiation therapy, hormonal and chemotherapy. Doctors of several specialties are involved in the development of an individual treatment plan.

The main method of treatment is surgery. The tumor is removed, then a piece of cancerous tissue is examined to determine the type of cancer. According to the results of the study, further drug therapy is already being prescribed. Subsequently, the issue of reconstructive surgery. The surgical stage includes the following types of operations:

• Removal of only the tumor.
• Partial removal of the breast along with healthy tissue around and part of the muscles.
• Removal of the breast completely.
• Radical surgery: the breast, axillary lymph nodes and chest muscles are removed.

After the operation, a course of hormone therapy is prescribed, the success of which will depend on the presence of hormone receptors on the surface of the tumor cell. A course of chemotherapy is prescribed. It consists in taking medications aimed at destroying pathogenic cells. Used in preparation for surgical treatment to reduce the size of the formation, and to neutralize metastases.

Radiation therapy is treatment with ionizing radiation. It is prescribed to slow down the growth of cancer cells. It is the method of choice if the tumor is inoperable.

Cancer relapses

Cancer is an aggressive disease. Unfortunately, the treatment does not guarantee a 100% result. After an indefinite period of time, symptoms may return. This is due to the recurrence of the disease. Cancer can occur in the same place or new tumors form from metastases. Often recurrences occur after removal of large tumors. The most dangerous period is the first five years after the operation, despite the success of its implementation. The average life expectancy after a relapse is 1-2 years.

Mortality from oncology will continue to occupy a leading place in the world until medicine finds an effective way to cure cancer. People should make a contribution: undergo annual screening in order to detect pathology in time and undergo an early effective course of therapy, help spread the right information about the disease. This will allow you to live long, even with a diagnosis of cancer.

In the cure of any disease leading role plays the person's own mood: despite the severity of the condition, it must be positive. The main thing to remember is that it is possible to live happily after cancer.

Breast cancer is common in almost all women. This is a terrible, very often fatal diagnosis that can affect anyone.

According to doctors, every 8-12 woman is at risk, most often at the age of 40 and older. According to statistics, there are much fewer men - no more than 5% of the total.

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Main danger

The main danger of cancer is its rapid development and invisibility.

Mutated cells, forming a malignant tumor, rapidly develop and multiply, spreading throughout the body. As a result, at stages 3-4, cancer penetrates not only into the chest, but also into the bones, brain, and lungs.

Cancer treatment consists of several steps:

1. Inhibition of cell growth.
2. Surgical removal of the affected tissue and the tumor itself.
3. Rehabilitation and restoration of the body.

It is important to know: recovery may take several years, with the risk of recurrence or secondary lesions.

Detect cancer at initial stages It is possible if you conduct regular annual examinations with a mammologist. This will help to notice the seal and get rid of it as quickly as possible.

How long will the patient live

When determining survival after cancer, absolutely everything plays an important role:

1. When the cancer was discovered, at what stage, whether it was operable or not, how quickly chemotherapy was selected.
2. How the body reacted to the treatment, how much the therapy harmed it.
3. Does the patient have bad habits that complicate treatment: age, overweight, smoking, alcoholism, certain diseases, physiological features etc.

Good to know: one of the most serious risk factors is heredity: if one of the blood relatives has suffered from cancer, it is imperative to visit a doctor.

The sooner cancer is detected, the greater the patient's chances of a full recovery. It is worth noting that the data below refer to 10 years of follow-up of patients undergoing treatment.

With relapse, the percentage of survivors in the next 5 years ranges from 60-70%. This is due to many reasons: early diagnosis and initiation of treatment, health status, the presence and absence of bad habits that impede recovery, and the aggressiveness of cancer.

This also includes the psychological state of the woman, her will to live and the support provided by relatives. All these reasons can increase the chances not only for survival, but also for recovery.

- This is an unpleasant, painful and difficult to treat disease, after the discovery of which you can live for several decades or several months. Due to the lack of primary signs, it is often detected only at stages 3-4, when the percentage of recovering begins to decline rapidly.

By starting treatment as early as possible, the patient significantly increases the chances of a successful recovery. How is rehabilitation after cancer surgery, see the doctor's answers in the following video:

Breast cancer how long do they live after surgery - more and more women are now asking this question. But getting breast cancer does not mean dying. If the disease is detected at an early stage, the chances of recovery are 95-100%. Of the thirty women who work in your team, three will develop breast cancer during their lifetime. No one is immune from this ... And the most popular question among those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer is how long do they live after surgery?

During the day, on average, fifty of our compatriots will find out that a malignant tumor has "settled" in their breasts.

Every fourth disease is diagnosed at a late stage. The disease takes one life every hour.

Who is at risk?

During the recurrence of the disease in the next five years, the survival rate is from sixty to seventy percent of the diseased.

Breast cancer is one of those types of diseases that are very well diagnosed and treated even in cases where the disease is advanced.

And in fifty to eighty percent of the sick, a positive effect is observed from the therapy received, but in order to increase the chances of recovery, it is very important for the patient to consult a doctor as soon as possible.

What should you eat to fight cancer?

Do you want to protect yourself from this terrible disease? Fight cancer with healthy eating!

Aperitif: vegetable salad

Lettuce and greens contain high level fiber and are full of antioxidants and carotenoids, which help remove free radicals from the body. The beta-carotene in carrots helps protect cell membranes from damage by toxins, slows the growth of cancer cells, and boosts white blood cells, which work to block the actions of cell-damaging free radicals.

Main Course: Lean Beef with Steamed Cauliflower

By eating small amounts (about 500 grams per week) of lean red meat, which is rich in protein, such as glutamine, which repairs body tissue, you can prevent the spread of cancer cells.

Onions and garlic not only add flavor but also contain phytochemicals that inhibit the development of cancer cells and protect immune system from viruses that can cause some types of cancer.

Fiber-rich foods have been linked to a reduced risk of rectal colon cancer because they promote healthy bowel movements. Cruciferous vegetables, for example, cauliflower, contain chemicals known as glucosinolates that help prevent cancer.

Dessert: fruit salad

Includes strawberries, which are high in antioxidants, and citrus fruits, a good source of vitamin C, which may help protect against various kinds cancer.

Women beat cancer quite often!

And in conclusion, we invite you to watch a video about women who have beaten breast cancer: