Hi all
Just a litle background.
I was dx in Jan with BC. In March had mx and recon. Nodes all clear.
Yesterday went to see ONC who recomended that I have chemo. He said that after chemo I will be cured of cancer.
My sister who went with me said to me after that she thought he should not have said that becuase you can be treated for cancer but not cured.
Has anyone else had that said to them.
Would be very interested to hear.
Hi judyduddy
When I had treatment (chemo, anc, mx, radio) my onc told me they were ‘going for curative treatment’, that my cancer was at a stage that could be cured, not that it would be cured. I’m 3 years post dx now, and doing well.
C x
Hi I was also told that “we are going for a cure” .But the term “you are cured” is not normally used, as breast cancer is so unpredictable and can reoccur years after treatment.Don’t think your Oncologist was being fair saying this.I am also 3+ years since diagnosis and am fine, as far as I know.
Best wishes Melxx
maybe it’s a question of semantics. You will be cured of cancer after chemo but that doesn’t guarantee it won’t come back. My mum gets bronchitis every Winter - it can be cured with a course of antibiotics but it usually comes back next Winter.
I had clear nodes and margins too and was told I was having chemo to kill any remaining cancer cells that could have got into my blood stream. I asked when they would know whether it had worked and was told they wouldn’t because if there had been anything in the blood stream it would have been too small to show on a scan, so they wouldn’t know for definite it had gone.
very best of luck with the chemo. I finished mine 3 weeks ago. It is nasty but it is doable and I promise it will go more quickly than you think.
Hi all,
mine said it is when we die of old age at 92 that they will know that we were cured of bc & he also said that it does indeed happen for some so here’s to old age, our 92nd bday’s & being cured of this wretched disease 
Sarah.xxx
this can depend on how you look at it.
‘cured for now’ is probably the best way to see it as opposed ‘cured for good’.
i will be happy to say its gone whilst it has - because it has! i’m not ignoring the fact that it may come back but until it does it hasn’t - does this make sense?
live life x
Absolute sense SCACO & live life for sure :)x
my doc has same the same to me “dont look so worried meds have changed over the yrs and we are now at the stage that we cure 80% of bc” and he feels ill be 1 of them however the only reason for chemo is to make sure he couldnt be 100% that in yrs to come it wouldnt come back
My onc said that it was curable but your high risk for it to come back so i dont recon thats a cure only a cure for now and as long as it lasts, for ever i hope. Another said focus on the cure and forget the recurrence risk.
i’ve said this before but will say again (please skip as necessary).
i have spent 41 glorious years not worrying about getting cancer - not in my own family. But I’ve got it, which means that for those 41 years i had a gun cocked and ready to go but because i didn’t know i didn’t worry.
Now I’ve got it we all know that it could come back - but now they can give me odds, which i didn’t have before. so i could either worry about the % odds of it coming back or see the odds as a good thing - afterall i’ve got it so thats 100% whereas say 80% chance of it returning is better than that. slightly skewded perhaps but works with the cup half full approach.
x
Mine said that with my dx the bc was curable, and thats what they were going for, but that at the moment the medics cannot tell you whether you are one of the good statistics who were cured. My nodes were clear but due to age snd being grade 3 i had chemo in case any littld blighters had escaped from my breast before the surgeon cut it out and the rads blasted the area to hell. I say i have had treatment for breast cancer and have a really good chance that it was successful and has got rid of the cancer, but that sadly you never can tell and thats when the mental gymnastics come in to enable u to get on with your life.
Hello everyone,
one of the 3 Oncs I saw used the word cured - and she said “we hope we will have cured you but you never know”…
I am with SCACO - I say, (in fact had to this morning to a colleague) for now, ie today, I don’t appear to have any cancer, what the future holds is the future, and I don’t plan on wasting energy worrying about it.
bw Nicola
you know i was brought up to belive everyone is born with cancer but it takes something to trigger it off to start growing (when you read wot cancer is it is just your own bodly cells over doing it ) so the way i look at it is this mine are over doing it but with the help it they will slow down to wot they should be and stay that way for another 41 yrs thats the way im going to look at it cos if start worriing now i might aswell forget the next 41 yrs
Odd isn’t it… my onc said “we can never say for sure that you won’t get it again” even though my prognosis is generally agreed to be good (stage 1, grade 1 not in nodes) and then went on about contralateral and doing tattoos in case you get recurrence in collar bone lymph etc.
I think different oncs are more or less positive in their language and attitude to bc. We all respond differently to what they say.
I was much more perturbed by his negative approach to something I feel positive about than I would have been about someone saying cured when we know there is always a chance of recurrence/ new primary.
My view is gone for now and try to put it out of my mind once treatment finishes. How good I will be at doing that in practice I don’t know but I do spent the majority of most days not thinking about it and thats still during treatment. Maybe head in sand but it works for me x
Thanks for replies.
I will indeed go with the view “Gone For Now”, as you all say you just never know. Not looking forward to Chemo but it has to be done. I need to be here for kids 8 & 12.
XXXXX
Chemo isn’t the nicest but it hasn’t been as bad as i was expecting.
Best of luck x
right now there is NO cure for breast cancer.we do the necessary treatment and hope for the best.
the only way a doctor can say that "you are cured"is if you were to die of something other than breast cancer.
breast cancer is tricky.and the magical "make it 5yrs and your ok"is far from the truth.it is true the longer one is out from tretment the more likely they will be ok.but woman still recur 10 or more years out from treatment.
woman who are ER- if they go 5 yrs without a recurrence chances are it will NOT come back.ER- breast cancer mostly recurs in the first 3 yrs.
for woman who are ER+,its not the case.Er+ cancers have a continual risk because woman will always have some form of estrogen circulating.either from their ovaries(pre menopausal),excess weight(estrogen is stored in fat cells)and are adrenal glands(we can not remove those).thats why we have Tamoxifen and A.I.'s and they are perscribed for 5 or more years.
ive seen woman with big tumors and 5 or more positive lymph nodes and they are still good 10 yrs later.Ive also seen alot of stage 1 no nodes “my oncologist told me id be cured” woman recurr.
there is no rhyme or reason.wish there was a golden book.
we need a cure,fast.
Hi Just wanted to pass on that my grandmother had bc in the 60s, had mastectomy then rads, no chemo (not sure if it was around in early 60s) and then she went on until her late 80s and died of old age! My aunt had bc 6 years ago and is fine and my mum was diagnosed 3 weeks after Me last October. I’ve found out recently that my great aunt and possibly my great grandmother also had bc. This bc lark has been talked about much in our family over the last few months and I’m fed up of it! My chemo finished 3 days ago so feeling bit grumpy now side effects starting to kick in. I see it as I’ve done everything I can to get rid of it and now it’s gone. I’m going to live my life to the full be positive, eat well and look after my body and not let bc define me as a person.
Rachel x
When planning chemotherapy with the Onc, we went through the statistics and percentages from Adjuvant etc (stage 2, grade 3, no nodes). I later had a bit of a panic on finding out about vascular invasion and asked a few more questions on next appointment. He told me “I am very confident that your breast cancer will be cured” but did caution that only time would tell if this was the case.
I know there are no guarantees, and know the stats on recurrence etc. I’m generally quite a positive person, however inevitably sometimes have dark thoughts and worries. When this happens, I run the Onc’s assurance through my head. For me, it helps, and think it was worded in such a way that it seemed an honest opinion.
I’ve just completed treatment, and trying hard to focus on the positive, and keep the worries at bay… it’s not easy though is it?
Think about the ‘All Clear’ in wartime.It meant that the danger had gone…for now.people could get on with their lives and the bombs might,or might not,come back.It’s the same with a bc ‘all clear’ just add ‘for now’ and be thankful
Good luck
Valx