Stage 4 Breast Cancer is Survivable

Stage 4 breast cancer, or metastatic breast cancer, can be a scary diagnosis. It's the final, advanced stage of breast cancer, and it's also the hardest and most expensive to treat. The breast cancer stage 4 prognosis is often unsettling. Only about 10% of breast cancers are this advanced.

This doesn't mean you can't make it through this, however. You just have a long, tough fight ahead of you. The information below can help you better understand and prepare for dealing with your stage 4 breast cancer.

What is stage 4, or stage IV breast cancer? Most of the other breast cancer stages are based on how large the tumor is, or how many lymph nodes it has spread to. Stage 4 takes this to another level.

Stage 4 breast cancer means that the cancer cells have spread to other organs in your body. Cells are usually found in the bone, lung, or liver. The cancer cells travel through your body and start dividing in other parts of your body. You might have many tumors throughout your body. Surgery at this stage doesn't normally work.

Sometimes the cancer has not spread to other organs, but has spread to the lymph nodes. This is not normally stage 4 cancer - but when the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes on the other side of the body, then it is stage 4. Usually, though, if the cancer has gone that far, it has already spread to another organ as well.

As with any cancer stage, each stage has its own subcategories. You might have stage 4 cancer, but only one other organ is affected. Or, you might have several other organs affected.
Your doctor will want to run some tests to see how far it has spread. Your doctor might run blood tests, give you an MRI, or an X-ray.

"Just because stage 4 breast cancer is advanced does not mean it isn't treatable."

Symptoms.

The symptoms of stage 4 breast cancer include symptoms of earlier stages. This includes a lump in the breast, swollen lymph nodes, redness or changes in breast skin or nipple texture.

You might also have symptoms involving the other organs in your body that the cancer has spread to. If the cancer is in your bones, too, you might have bone pain. You might have weight loss and lack of appetite due to liver problems. Or, you could have lung pain or shortness of breath due to lung issues

If you experience any new symptoms, or feel pain anywhere else in your body (including headaches and weakness), tell your doctor. This may be a sign your cancer has spread further.

Treatment

Just because stage 4 breast cancer is advanced does not mean it isn't treatable. The five-year survival rate for this stage of breast cancer is around 20%, so any treatment must be aggressive. You're probably looking at intense chemotherapy, radiation therapy, strong drugs-or all of the above
Your doctor will most likely run a blood test to see if there are tumor cells in your bloodstream. This will help determine which treatments will work best, and where to start fighting the cancer first.At this point, treatment is trial and error.

There is not enough proof to show that high-dose chemotherapy is helpful at this stage. There is also not enough to prove a particular mix of drugs will help more than any other. You'll need to treat each aspect of your cancer (by treating the cancer in the breast, bone, lung, and so on separately), and also rely on chemotherapy or another treatment to treat your cancer as a whole. Stage 4 breast cancer is not easy, but it is survivable. Just hang in there, and keep fighting. You can do this

Written by Natalie Thomas
8/8/09