Breast Cancer Awareness month - Day 5
Day 5. What are the statistics on incidence of metastatic breast cancer?
Approximately 20-30% of patients with an early stage cancer will have their cancer return as metastatic, even if they were told their early stage cancer had been "cured." Another 8% of new breast cancer cases are found to be metastatic at their initial diagnosis.
I've seen the statistic 6-10% are metastatic at diagnosis, too (so 8 is a good average). Looking at that number and knowing that I fell into that tiny percentage...am I "lucky" or not? Does this bode well for my chance at winning the Mega Millions? Will I live long enough to spend most of it? Lump sum or annuity? ;) (Please everyone understand right now that I will look for a bright side or the humorous side of everything...it's how I deal with things. If that makes anyone uncomfortable, sorry.)
I feel for the people who have been living with no evidence of disease (NED) and then get the metastatic re-occurrence. Those people went through much more than I, treatment-wise. Mastectomies, radiation, really hard chemotherapy that made them sick...and then the kick in the stomach that is re-occurrence. I've had cancer once a week, for about an hour, for the last 16 months, tapering down to once a month. No nausea, no hair loss, no debilitating fatigue. I guess I AM lucky.
Approximately 20-30% of patients with an early stage cancer will have their cancer return as metastatic, even if they were told their early stage cancer had been "cured." Another 8% of new breast cancer cases are found to be metastatic at their initial diagnosis.
I've seen the statistic 6-10% are metastatic at diagnosis, too (so 8 is a good average). Looking at that number and knowing that I fell into that tiny percentage...am I "lucky" or not? Does this bode well for my chance at winning the Mega Millions? Will I live long enough to spend most of it? Lump sum or annuity? ;) (Please everyone understand right now that I will look for a bright side or the humorous side of everything...it's how I deal with things. If that makes anyone uncomfortable, sorry.)
I feel for the people who have been living with no evidence of disease (NED) and then get the metastatic re-occurrence. Those people went through much more than I, treatment-wise. Mastectomies, radiation, really hard chemotherapy that made them sick...and then the kick in the stomach that is re-occurrence. I've had cancer once a week, for about an hour, for the last 16 months, tapering down to once a month. No nausea, no hair loss, no debilitating fatigue. I guess I AM lucky.
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