Breast Cancer - Chances of a Cure
Martina Feichter studied biology with an elective subject pharmacy in Innsbruck and also immersed herself in the world of medicinal plants. From there it was not far to other medical topics that still captivate her to this day. She trained as a journalist at the Axel Springer Academy in Hamburg and has been working for since 2007 - first as an editor and since 2012 as a freelance writer.
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In most cases, the chances of a cure for breast cancer are good: the disease can be cured in many women. In some patients, however, daughter tumors (metastases) develop in the body. This can significantly worsen the breast cancer prognosis. Sometimes the cancer reappears later in life (relapse). Read more about the possible course of breast cancer and its chances of recovery here!
ICD codes for this disease: ICD codes are internationally recognized codes for medical diagnoses. They can be found, for example, in doctor's letters or on certificates of incapacity for work. D05C50
Breast cancer: prognostic factors
In many cases, breast cancer is curable - the various forms of therapy that are available can often eliminate the tumor. In individual cases, the chances of recovery from breast cancer depend on various factors, such as the type of breast cancer and the stage of cancer.
Tumor stage at diagnosis
The earlier the disease is discovered, the higher the chances of recovery. Because together with the size of the tumor, the probability increases that lymph nodes in the armpit are also affected by cancer and metastases have formed in the body. This makes therapy much more difficult and worsens the chances of a cure for breast cancer.
In this context, not only the tumor size plays a role. It is also important, for example, whether the breast cancer focus has already grown into lymph or blood vessels. This increases the risk that cancer cells have already detached and settled elsewhere. This then leads to further growths or metastases, sometimes not until some time after the first breast cancer therapy.
Degree of degeneration ("grading") of the tumor
With so-called "grading", the tumor cells are assessed according to how much they differ from the healthy original cell:
G1 tumors are the least degenerate. They are still very similar to the original tissue, i.e. well differentiated. G1 tumor cells usually grow slowly and not very aggressively. This usually has a positive effect on the chances of recovery from breast cancer.
The situation is very different with severely degenerated breast carcinomas (G3 tumors): their cells are poorly differentiated, usually grow quickly and aggressively penetrate the surrounding tissue - this worsens the chances of recovery.
In G4 tumors, the cells can actually no longer be assigned to their original tissue (undifferentiated tissue). Only the location of the cancer focus suggests the place of origin. These cancers usually grow very cancerous.
Predictive factors
Every breast cancer has certain characteristics that determine its growth and can vary from patient to patient. For example, some have a large number of hormone receptors and / or HER2 receptors on the surface of their cells, while others do not.
These special properties of cancer cells are called predictive factors. It depends on them whether a patient will respond to a particular therapy. This in turn has a significant impact on the chances of recovery from breast cancer. For example, anti-hormone therapy works much better on tumors with a large number of hormone receptors than on others with few or no such receptors.
Patient's age
The breast cancer prognosis is also influenced by the age of the patient: Patients younger than 35 suffer more relapses (recurrences) and generally have a less favorable prognosis than older patients.
Menopausal status
The menopausal status - i.e. whether a woman is still getting her menstrual period or has already passed the menopause - influences the hormonal balance. Since many tumors grow with the help of hormones, it is important for the choice of a suitable therapy and thus also affects the breast cancer prognosis.
Type of breast cancer
There are different forms of breast cancer. Some are more curable than others. Inflammatory breast cancer, for example, generally has an unfavorable prognosis, whereas tubular breast cancer has a particularly favorable prognosis.
Breast cancer: local recurrence and metastases
Some patients develop a local recurrence after treatment has been completed. That is, the tumor returns in the same place. In five to ten out of 100 breast cancer patients who have received breast-conserving surgery and radiation, this happens within ten years.
Out of 100 patients who have had their entire breast removed (mastectomy), four develop a tumor on the chest wall. About one percent of post-mastectomy patients get a relapse in the armpit.
The faster they occur after the initial treatment, the worse the chances of recovery from local recurrences: a recurrence within two years after the first treatment is less curable than local recurrences that only appear later. In addition, these so-called "early" breast cancer recurrences are associated with a higher risk of further relapse or metastases.
In around three out of 100 women, breast cancer has already formed daughter tumors (metastases) in the body when the patient is first diagnosed. It is then no longer treatable as easily as in earlier stages - so the chances of a cure for breast cancer are worse. In the long term, around one in four breast cancer patients will develop metastases at some point.
Breast Cancer Survival
According to statistics, 87 out of 100 breast cancer patients are still alive five years after the diagnosis, i.e. 87 percent of the women with the disease. In male breast cancer patients, the figure is 77 percent. Doctors speak of the 5-year survival rate here. The 10-year survival rate is 82 percent for women and 72 percent for men. The chances of a cure for breast cancer are therefore better in women than in men.
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