Breast Cancer Prognosis

Your breast cancer prognosis is a "forecast" doctors will give you about your cancer. The prognosis will tell you how the disease will probably react, and what your chances of surviving are. The prognosis is very important when deciding what course of action to take to treat your cancer.

Your breast cancer prognosis depends on several factors.

Breast cancer is the number two cancer killer in women, behind lung cancer. There are many factors that affect your prognosis. One of the greatest factors is the location of the cancer and how far it has spread within the body. If your tumor has stayed in one area, and has not spread to lymph nodes, you will probably have a good prognosis. You'll have a good chance of beating breast cancer.

This very survivable breast cancer is called "carcinoma in situ." It's cancer that forms in the ducts of the breast. At the point, the cancer has not spread to other body areas, like the lymph nodes. You have a 98 percent of surviving this type of cancer for five years

Other prognoses may be more concerning, such as an inflammatory breast cancer prognosis. Also, if the cancer spreads to the lymph nodes, the survival rate after five years goes down to 84 percent. If the cancer has spread to the other body sites, like the brain, liver, lung or bone), the survival rate is only 27 percent after five years.

This may be a small percentage, but there is hope no matter what-so don't give up

The location of your cancer is important. Breast cancer on the outside part of your breast is easier to treat than one that develops in the middle of your breast. This is why you need to check all areas during a breast during breast self examination.

Tumor size, stage, and complications with your breast cancer may affect your prognosis.

Estrogen and progesterone receptors on your breast cancer cells make a difference, too. If your cancer is receptor positive, this means drugs can block the receptor. This blocks the growth of the cancer. Your prognosis of breast cancer, if these drugs help you, is very good.

Estrogen receptor positive cancers are very common. Drugs like Tamoxifen helps to slow tumor growth, in that case. Megace, another drug, is used for women who have progesterone receptors. These cancers are called "hormone sensitive" because they are sensitive to female hormones

Cancers that are resistant to hormone-blocking drugs, unfortunately, have a poorer prognosis. If you don't have that type of cancer, there are other ways to determine the best course of action.

Cancer cells have things called "tumor markers".Tumor markers help doctors know how aggressive a tumor is. It also can tell if a cancer can respond to different drugs directly related to tumor markers. The HER2 receptor is one known tumor marker. Cancers that are HER2 positive grow faster than tumors that do not have the HER2 receptor on them.

Doctors can use tests to see if you have the HER2 receptor. About 20% of cancers turn out to be HER2 positive. Younger women have this condition more often than older women.

"Staying positive and surrounding yourself with social support can help your prognosis, too. Cancer is a fight, and one that needs to be fought both physically and emotionally" Herceptin is a drug used to treat HER2 positive breast cancers. It also slows the growth of the cancer cells

The faster a breast cancer grows, the worse the prognosis of breast cancer. This also means that larger cancers have a poorer prognosis. This is why mammograms are helpful. They can determine the presence of very small cancers-and detecting your cancer early will give you a better breast cancer prognosis

Staying positive and surrounding yourself with social support can help your prognosis, too. Cancer is a fight, and one that needs to be fought both physically and emotionally.