In most cases, breast cancer chances of recovery are good: the disease can be cured in many women. In some patients, however, a new tumor (local recurrence) develops later in the same place, or the first tumor forms secondary tumors (metastases) in the body. This can significantly worsen the breast cancer prognosis. Read more about the possible course of a breast cancer and its chances of recovery here!
Breast cancer: prognosis factors
In many cases, breast cancer is curable – the various forms of therapy that are available can often eliminate the tumor. In individual cases, breast cancer chances of recovery depend on various factors. These include:
Tumor stage at the time of diagnosis
The earlier the disease is discovered, the higher the chances of recovery. Because together with the size of the tumor increases the likelihood that even lymph nodes in the armpit are affected by cancer and metastases have formed in the body. This complicates the therapy considerably and worsens the breast cancer cure chances.
Degree of development (“grading”) of the tumor
In the so-called “grading”, the tumor cells are judged according to how different they are from the healthy cell of origin:
The least degenerated are G1 tumors. They are still very similar to the original tissue. Their cells are well differentiated, grow slowly and are less aggressive. This has a positive effect on breast cancer chances of recovery.
The situation is very different with the most degenerated breast cancer (G4 tumors): their undifferentiated cells grow quickly and penetrate aggressively into the surrounding tissue – this worsens the chances of breast cancer healing.
Predictive factors
Every breast cancer has certain characteristics that determine its growth and may vary from patient to patient. For example, some tumors have many estrogen 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. They provide information about the breast cancer prognosis, because the response to various therapies can be estimated from them. For example, an anti-hormone therapy will have a much better effect on tumors with a large number of hormone receptors than on tumors in which few or no such receptors are located on the cell surface.
Age of the patient
The breast cancer prognosis is also influenced by the age of the patient: Patients younger than 35 suffer more relapses (relapses) than older patients and have a less favorable prognosis than older age groups.
menopausal status
The status of the menopause – ie whether a patient is still having her period or already having menopause – is important for the therapy and thus also has an effect on the breast cancer prognosis.
Type of breast cancer
There are several forms of breast cancer. Some are better curable than others. For example, inflammatory breast cancer generally has an unfavorable prognosis, while tubular breast cancer is a particularly favorable one.
Breast cancer: local recurrence and metastases
Some patients develop local recurrence after treatment is complete. That is, the tumor returns at the same location. For example, in about five to ten out of 100 breast cancer patients, within ten years of the initial treatment with breast-conserving surgery and radiation, a new cancerous tumor forms in the remaining breast tissue of the same breast. If the breast was removed during initial treatment (mastectomy), about four out of every 100 patients developed a new tumor on the chest wall. Even then one speaks of a local recurrence.
In case of local recurrence, breast cancer chances of recovery depend on how soon after the first treatment they occur: Recurrence within two years of initial treatment is less curable and associated with a higher risk of further relapse and metastases than local recurrences greater than two Years after the first therapy occur.
In about three out of 100 women, breast cancer at the first diagnosis already has metastases in the body. He is then no longer as good as therapy in earlier stages – the breast cancer cure chances are worse. In the long run, approximately one in four breast cancer patients develop metastases in the course of the disease.
Breast cancer survival
According to statistics, five years after the diagnosis, 88 out of 100 breast cancer patients, that is, 88 percent of women who are ill, still live. In male breast cancer patients, it is 78 percent. Doctors are talking about the 5-year survival rate here. The 10-year survival rate is 82 percent for women and 65 percent for men. The Breast cancer prognosis are thus much better in women than in men.