Have you looked it up on the Predict breast cancer tool? It’s available online ( make sure you get the version with radiotherapy as that is the newest). It will give you the survival percentage odds at 5,10,15 years. BUT that is all it will give you. It’s something, but no one knows if you or any of us will be here tomorrow let alone in 20 years. But understanding if you have a 20% chance of being here in 10 years or a 90% one gives you something to base your decision making on. It just is really fucking scary!
Can I just ask pls ( and frightened ), I have same HER2 diagnosis and done 4 of 6 chemo cycles - why are we all talking just survival rates at 15 years or 10 or 5? Are we not expected to survive longer than 15 years - any of us ?
That’s just the timelines the Predict tool uses, as far as I’m aware. Not sure why those numbers are chosen, but no, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mean none of us will last beyond 15 years - I know women who have lasted 20+ years following diagnosis
Hi @lisalisa welcome to the forum. As @sharlou has said it’s just the timescales used on the Predict score. I know of a lady who had a mastectomy 34 years ago and she’s still here. Had it been now she may have had a lumpectomy and radiotherapy, Treatments have changed over the years and the Predict score has recently been updated to included bisphosphonates.
As you are HER2+ you may like to join the thread HER2+ and need some buddies, it’s been going for over a year with some of us finished active treatment, some on Phesgo/Herceptin/Kadcyla other like you having chemo.
Here’s the link if your interested
Are you on one of the monthly chemo starters group? It’s another supportive way to get through treatment with others in a similar position as you. This is the November thread as I you said you’ve had 4 cycles so far.
Take care
Hi @lisalisa it’s mainly because survival data is based on research studies which track a cohort of women who have certain characteristics - maybe histology type, maybe treatment type, maybe the focus is on age banding etc etc. These studies may continue for decades depending on a number of factors like if the funding is still there, if the underlying thesis of the study is still relevant, if the individuals in the cohort are still traceable and many other things but they have a finite time period. NHS Predict has been mentioned as a prognostic tool that oncologists use to estimate survival and the data on which Predict is based draws in data from multiple studies internationally. All of this data is based on tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of individual stories and within those individuals stories are thousands upon thousands who go on to live a normal lifespan after the studies that include them are finished. The 5, 10 and 15 years model is just a framework used by scientists in research.