If you are a woman who has contracted breast cancer that has yet to metastasize you have an average five-year survival rate of about 86%. What this means is that 86% of all women who have contracted breast cancer survive the disease for at least five years. Though that number is extremely high it is merely an overall average. In many categories the numbers are greater, and the survival rates are better. These numbers of course depend on which stage individuals detect their cancer and seek medical treatment.

Just like other forms of cancer, individuals develop breast cancer in stages. Each stage is labeled with both a letter and a number. The cancer types are labeled based on a classification system that has become a cancer standard. These labels are (T, N, and MO and are scaled from 0-IV). A cancer that has been deemed A T is indicative of the cancers size, the N means that the cancer has spread to the individual’s lymph nodes and M means distant metastasis. Metastasis means that a tumor is spreading from its primary location to secondary locations throughout the body forming the same tumor types in other locations.

Tumors that are labeled as TX are not able to be assessed. T0 means that no evidence of cancer exists. Tis means that the person in question has a cancer that could be one of three different cancer types: DCIS (ductal carcinoma situ), LCIS (lobular carcinoma in situ) or even Paget’s disease. Paget’s disease is an extremely rare cancer in which the nipple and/or areola itself is actually cancerous.

Stage 0 cancers are ones that have been detected in the earliest possible stage. If a cancer is in Stage I that is indicative that the cancer is smaller than 2cm in size and hasn’t yet begun to spread. A cancer in Stage II indicates that the cancer has grown to 2-5cm in diameter and tumors in Stage III are larger than 5cm. When an individual has a tumor that is stage IV then typically it has attached itself to the chest wall and spread to the lymph nodes of the individual.

Because of the advances in diagnosis and treatment techniques many individuals are able to catch their cancer and eliminate it in the earliest stages.

For women and men who are treated while their cancer is in Stage 0 or Stage I the chances of an individual surviving for five years is about 100%. Men are also capable of contracting breast cancer; the rate at which men can contract the disease is much less than women. Individuals suffering with Stage II cancers have survival rates ranging between 81% and 92%. The survival rate doesn’t dip until you get to Stage III at which point the rate is around 67%. If an individual has Stage IV cancer it is about 20%.

Of course, many women and men do beat the odds. Even many of those in later stages survive significantly longer than seven years. As diagnostic techniques and treatment methods continue to improve the numbers do as well. As medical knowledge advances, more and more on the lower end of the category move into the upper reaches.

A new diagnostic technique is the QM-MSP (quantitative multiplex metylation-specific PCR). This technique was discovered in 2001, and it is a chemical test that utilizes the fluid from an individual’s breast. It then analyzes the chemicals attached to specific genes. Cancer clumps that are as small as 50 cells can be detected with an 86% rate of reliability. These new methods make cancer detection extremely possible, improving the chances of treatments that are successful.

Treatments are also becoming better. Now available are hormone therapy, drugs that are molecule specific, and targeted radiation. These incredible methods are capable of saving the lives of tons of individuals.

Though never pleasant, and still a serious condition, breast cancer no longer has to be life threatening or even permanently scarring.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cancer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.