Breast Cancer Awareness month - Day 1
Every day this month I am going to pull info from the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network website. Enjoy :)
Day 1. What is Metastatic Breast Cancer? (pronounced as Met-a-STA-tic)
MBC also known as Stage IV is cancer that has spread outside of the breast to other organs such as bones, liver, lung or brain. This process is called metastasis.(pronounced as Me-TAS-ta-sis).
My metastasis is to my lung only, so far. If we want to get technical, not all metastatic breast cancer patients are stage IV...I have read on multiple sites that you keep the stage at original diagnosis, so some people may be stage III metastatic because of re-occurrence. It isn't wrong when people with re-occurrence say they are stage IV. However, I was diagnosed at stage IV, which may be the easier way to go if you think about it. I knew from the get go that I will never be cured and that I will undergo treatment for the rest of my life. Imagine how hard it must be to think you are cured (early stages) only to find out the cancer has metastasized!
Day 1. What is Metastatic Breast Cancer? (pronounced as Met-a-STA-tic)
MBC also known as Stage IV is cancer that has spread outside of the breast to other organs such as bones, liver, lung or brain. This process is called metastasis.(pronounced as Me-TAS-ta-sis).
My metastasis is to my lung only, so far. If we want to get technical, not all metastatic breast cancer patients are stage IV...I have read on multiple sites that you keep the stage at original diagnosis, so some people may be stage III metastatic because of re-occurrence. It isn't wrong when people with re-occurrence say they are stage IV. However, I was diagnosed at stage IV, which may be the easier way to go if you think about it. I knew from the get go that I will never be cured and that I will undergo treatment for the rest of my life. Imagine how hard it must be to think you are cured (early stages) only to find out the cancer has metastasized!
I will look forward to reading this.
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