Breast Cancer Survival Rate
A breast cancer survival rate is the statistic in which a group of people with the same type of cancer will be alive after being diagnosed. The doctor can’t necessarily tell you exactly how long you will have to live after being diagnosed. They won’t give you an exact time, but they will help you get a basic knowledge of if the treatment you are undergoing will be successful or not. Most breast cancer patients that are found in stage 0-1 will be given a five-year survival rate.
What is a 5-year survival rate?
The average and most common of cancers, especially breast cancer is given a 5-year diagnosis of survival. However, most people live much longer than that after being diagnosed with cancer. The statistics for a five-year survival rate is 90% meaning that out of 100 people, 90 of them will still be alive after five years of being diagnosed. Over the past few decades, doctors and healthcare professionals have been collecting data on all kinds of cancers. Looking for patterns in relative survival to cancer and comparing the effects of breast cancer in women from all populations.
Breast Cancer Survival Stages
The characteristics of the breast cancer will determine what stage the cancer is in. Breast cancer stages are on a numeric scale of 0 through IV. Each of them describes a different severity of cancer. The stage numbers are based on three questions. Has it grown to nearby tissue? Are there cancerous cells located in the lymph nodes? Has cancer spread from the breast to the rest of the body? This will help the doctors confirm what stage of cancer has been progressed to. The prognosis they find will help treat the patient because knowledge is half of the battle. Stages II through III can hide for years and slowly spread about without even being noticed.
Stage Information
Stage 0 is described as a non-invasive breast cancer. This is the earliest stage of breast cancer and the only stage of cancer where cancer cells won’t try to attack neighboring tissues. While stage II is considered an invasive breast cancer. This where the cancer cells will invade the nearby lymph nodes such as the nodes under the arm and near the breastplate. When breast cancer gets to Stage III, cells start attacking the lymph nodes rapidly. The breasts will become swollen and the skin near the affected area will start turning a reddish color. Once breast cancer progresses to Stage IV cancer spreads to all nearby tissue and it starts affecting the lungs, the brain, and the liver.
Breast Cancer Growth
Once a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer they need to know what happens when cancer spreads. When a cell is damaged by cancer, it has the possibility of creating more damaged cancer cells. However, it is possible for a cancer cell to lie dormant after being damaged. Although, if cancer cells do start replicating, they can create a tumor. Once a tumor starts its growth, the body’s chemical and hormone balance can sometimes even accelerate the growth of the tumor. If breast cancer goes without notice then the blood vessels and lymph nodes with actually carry cancer to other places in the body like the lungs and liver.
Breast Cancer Survival
Mostly women, but even some men have been diagnosed with breast cancer. They get it because the disease is hereditary. That’s why’s it so important to know your family’s medical history and have regular check-ups. You won’t know otherwise if you are at risk or not of being diagnosed. However, every woman’s chances of getting diagnosed with the disease increases as they grow older. The best thing you can do with breast cancer is to get regularly tested for the disease and catch it early. There’s a lot about breast cancer that doctors don’t know. But, they do know one thing. If breast cancer is caught early enough the chances of survival are very high. Breast cancer is something that can definitely be beaten. In fact, the statistics show that for the majority of women diagnosed, 90% survive. So if you feel that you are at risk, contact your doctor as soon as possible and set up a consultation.
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