Stage 1 Breast Cancer Survival Rates

Breast Cancer Prognosis: Fear Hope And Understanding Survival Rates

Following a breast cancer diagnosis, its natural to wonder about your prognosis. Prognosis refers to the overall outlook of a disease how well it generally responds to treatment and how it may affect your life expectancy. A prognosis cant predict the future for any one individual. Its important to discuss your cancer prognosis with your doctor to better understand the road ahead.

Why Is Staging Important

During your initial diagnosis, you and your cancer team will work together to develop a treatment plan. Staging allows you to answer the following questions:

• How does this cancer typically progress?
• Which treatments may work?

Some of the staging may be even more in-depth, but in general, its designed to prepare a more tailored approach to your disease. Your care team will be able to explain any new terms and what they mean for you.

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Conventional Stages Of Breast Cancer Progression: 0 Through Iv

As mentioned, there are five basic stages of breast cancer with a couple of sub-categories.

Stage 0

This is a bit of an unclear term which specialists use to describe the development of abnormal cells that are not yet invasive breast cancer. Indeed physicians consider Ductal Carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, stage 0 breast cancer.

Here the malignant cancer cells are present in the lining of the breast d uct but have not yet invaded the surrounding breast tissue or spread beyond the duct. Almost 100% of DCIS is curable, but it obviously, does need treatment.

Early-stage breast cancer Stage 1

Stage 1 breast cancer is an early stage breast cancer. There is a considerable difference in medical opinion as to what exactly constitutes early stag e breast cancer. Also, how aggressive the treatment for Stage I breast cancer is another area of debate.

The standard definition of a stage 1 breast tumor is that a certain amount of breast cancer cells invade tissues and structures beyond the duct lining. However, no cancer cells have spread beyond the breast.

Furthermore, the tumor size is less than 2 cm in diameter. If physicians can detect and treat breast cancer before it grows beyond 2cm, the prognosis is very very good.

The average age of diagnosis of a stage 1 breast tumor is about 52 years old. In over 90% of cases, treatment tends to involve breast conservation surgery, followed by radiation therapy.

Chance of stage 1 cancer recurrence or spreading.

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Lumpectomy With And Without Radiation For Early

Leonard R. Prosnitz, MDOncology

Breast-conserving therapy with lumpectomy and breast irradiation is an accepted standard treatment for patients with early-stage invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ . For both diseases, investigators have tried to identify subgroups of patients who can be safely treated with lumpectomy without radiation. Some data suggest that it may be reasonable to omit radiation therapy in patients with small, low-grade invasive or noninvasive tumors and/or in elderly patients. Additional studies are needed to better identify criteria to prospectively select appropriate patients for treatment with lumpectomy alone.

Breast-conserving therapy with lumpectomy and breast irradiation is an accepted standard treatment for patients with early-stage invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ . For both diseases, investigators have tried to identify subgroups of patients who can be safely treated with lumpectomy without radiation. Some data suggest that it may be reasonable to omit radiation therapy in patients with small, low-grade invasive or noninvasive tumors and/or in elderly patients. Additional studies are needed to better identify criteria to prospectively select appropriate patients for treatment with lumpectomy alone.

Are There Any Statistics On Recurrence Rates Or Incidence Of Metastasis

As mentioned, it is very difficult to find statistics on metastatic breast cancer that has recurred after initial diagnosis. However, these cases represent a large proportion of Stage IV breast cancer cases and overall deaths.

Most of the statistical data on Stage IV or metastatic breast cancer is from those women presenting at diagnosis. According to the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network in 2012 new cases of Stage IV breast cancer were between 13,776 to 22,096.

The number of breast cancer recurrences at Stage IV is estimated to be between 20% and 30% of all breast cancer diagnoses.

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What Is Stage 0 Lcis

Lobular carcinoma in situ at Stage 0 generally is not considered cancer. Although it has carcinoma in the name, it really describes a growth of abnormal but non-invasive cells forming in the lobules. Some experts prefer the name lobular neoplasia for this reason because it accurately refers to the abnormal cells without naming them as cancer. LCIS, however, may indicate a woman has an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

If you have been diagnosed with LCIS, your doctor may recommend regular clinical breast exams and mammograms. He or she may also prescribe Tamoxifen, a hormone therapy medication that helps prevent cancer cells from growing.

Expert Review And References

• American Cancer Society. Breast Cancer. 2015: .
• de Boer M, van Dijck JA, Bult P, Borm GF, Tjan-Heijnen VC. Breast cancer prognosis and occult lymph node metastases, isolated tumor cells, and micrometastases. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Oxford University Press 2010.
• Lonning PE. Breast cancer prognostication and prediction: are we making progress?. Annals of Oncology. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007.
• Morrow M, Burstein HJ, and Harris JR. Malignant tumors of the breast. DeVita VT Jr, Lawrence TS, & Rosenberg SA. Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2015: 79: 1117-1156.
• Tripathy D, Eskenazi LB, Goodson, WH, et al. Breast. Ko, A. H., Dollinger, M., & Rosenbaum, E. Everyones Guide to Cancer Therapy: How Cancer is Diagnosed, Treated and Managed Day to Day. 5th ed. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing 2008: pp. 473-514.

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What Is The Prognosis

Your prognosis will depend on many factors, including the grade and stage of your cancer, as well as your long-term care plans. Follow-up appointments and tests can help your doctor detect a recurrence of cancer or any other complications.

Like other cancers, ILC is staged on a 0 to 4 scale. Staging has to do with the size of the tumors, lymph node involvement, and whether tumors have spread to other areas of the body. Higher numbers represent more advanced stages.

Research shows that ILC often has a good prognosis because the cancer cells are generally low grade, and they respond well to hormone treatment.

This responsiveness to treatment is favorable to your prognosis. Most of these types of cancers are hormone receptor-positive, usually estrogen positive. This means the cancer cells must have the hormone to grow. So medication that blocks the effects of estrogen can help prevent a return of disease and improve your prognosis.

But ILC tumors can often spread aggressively. People diagnosed with ILC are on average 3 years older at diagnosis compared with those with IDC. ILC is also most often diagnosed at a more advanced stage.

Several studies demonstrate that the overall long-term outcome for people diagnosed with ILC may be similar to those diagnosed with other types of invasive breast cancer. Some subgroups of people with ILC have worse outcomes than IDC, primarily related to the type of tumor they have and its treatment.

What Is Stage 0 Breast Cancer

Stage 0 breast cancer. Stage 0 breast cancer, or ductal carcinoma in situ , is when there are atypical cells in the lining of your milk ducts. But those cells have not spread beyond the wall of the duct to reach surrounding tissue, your bloodstream, or lymph nodes. DCIS is noninvasive and is sometimes called precancer..

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Where Do These Numbers Come From

The American Cancer Society relies on information from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, maintained by the National Cancer Institute , to provide survival statistics for different types of cancer.

The SEER database tracks 5-year relative survival rates for breast cancer in the United States, based on how far the cancer has spread. The SEER database, however, does not group cancers by AJCC TNM stages . Instead, it groups cancers into localized, regional, and distant stages:

• Localized: There is no sign that the cancer has spread outside of the breast.
• Regional: The cancer has spread outside the breast to nearby structures or lymph nodes.
• Distant: The cancer has spread to distant parts of the body such as the lungs, liver or bones.

Relative Survival By Stage At Diagnosis

Introduction:

This measure comprises national data on relative survival by stage at diagnosis for invasive female breast cancer.

Stage at diagnosis indicates the extent to which a cancer has spread at diagnosis. It is an important prognostic factor for cancer outcomes. It also provides contextual information for interpreting cancer outcomes, including survival, at a population level.1

Relative survival refers to the probability of being alive for a given amount of time after diagnosis, compared with survival of the general population. Observed survival refers to the overall proportion of people who are alive following a specified amount of time after diagnosis of cancer. In this report, survival refers to relative survival unless otherwise stated. Examining survival by stage at diagnosis provides insights into how survival outcomes differ depending on extent of cancer spread at diagnosis.

To provide a better understanding of cancer stage at diagnosis at the population-level, Business Rules were developed to collect national data on Registry-derived stage at diagnosis using data sources that are routinely accessible to all population-based cancer registries. RD-stage is defined for invasive tumours only. More information on the capture and distribution of RD-stage at diagnosis can be accessed through the following measures:

• Distribution of cancer stage

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What Do Cancer Stages And Grades Mean

The stage of a cancer describes the size of a tumour and how far it has spread from where it originated. The grade describes the appearance of the cancerous cells.

If youre diagnosed with cancer, you may have more tests to help determine how far it has progressed. Staging and grading the cancer will allow the doctors to determine its size, whether it has spread and the best treatment options.

Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Stages

Invasive ductal carcinoma stages provide physicians with a uniform way to describe how far a patients cancer may have spread beyond its original location in a milk duct. This information can be helpful when evaluating treatment options, but it is not a prognostic indicator in and of itself. Many factors can influence a patients outcome, so the best source of information for understanding a breast cancer prognosis is always a physician who is familiar with the patients case.

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How Grade Affects Treatment Options

Your treatment team will consider the grade of your cancer when deciding which treatment to offer you.

If you have grade 3 breast cancer, youre more likely to be offered chemotherapy. This is to help destroy any cancer cells that may have spread as a result of the cancer being faster growing.

Chemotherapy is less likely for grade 1 and grade 2 cancers.

The grade of your cancer alone will not determine what treatment youre offered. Your treatment team will consider the grade alongside all other information about your cancer when deciding on the best treatment options for you.

Find out more about breast cancer and prognosis.

Prognosis For Stage 3 Breast Cancer

The earliest form of advanced stage breast cancer is stage 3 breast cancer. In stage 3, breast cancer cells have infiltrated more lymph nodes and the muscle surrounding the breast. Because the disease is further along at the time of diagnosis, the prognosis is less favorable than that of early-stage breast cancer.

Survival rates range from 66 percent to as high as 98 percent. This wider range of outcomes is due to additional substages included in stage 3 cancer, along with molecular features that can affect treatment options.

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Treatment For Early Stage Breast Cancer

If you are diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, the aim of treatment is to remove the breast cancer and any other cancer cells that remain in the breast, armpit or other parts of the body but cannot be detected.

Treatment for early stage breast cancer can vary from person to person. The stage of your breast cancer is an important factor when making decisions about treatment. However, the most suitable treatment for you also depends on other factors, such as where the cancer is in the breast, the cancers grade, and whether the cancer is hormone receptor-positive, HER2 positive or triple-negative. Your doctor will also consider your age, general health and preferences.

Treatment for early breast cancer may involve:

Usually more than one treatment is used. Treatment may be given in different orders and combinations. Learn more about different treatment options here.

Treatment For Stage 1 Breast Cancer

Doctors can offer a variety of treatment options for stage 1 breast cancer, although surgery is the primary treatment.

Surgery

A lumpectomy or mastectomy are both viable surgical options for people with stage 1 breast cancer. A doctor will decide what surgery is most appropriate depending on the location of the primary tumor, how large it is, the size of the breast, family history, genetics, and the persons preference.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy is a standard treatment for stage 1 breast cancer. However, a doctor may not recommend radiation therapy for people over 70 years old, particularly if hormone therapy is suitable.

Hormone therapy

If the breast cancer is ER+ or PR+, hormone therapy may be effective. Hormone therapy works by preventing the growth of estrogen, which helps cancer grow. Hormone therapy can reach cancer cells in the breast as well as other areas of the body and reduces the risk of the cancer coming back.

Chemotherapy

Before recommending chemotherapy, a doctor will test to see whether the cancer is hormone receptive.

If the test results show that the cancer is not receptive to estrogen and progesterone or to another protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 , it is known as triple-negative breast cancer .

Hormone therapy is ineffective against this cancer type, and people who have TNBC will usually need chemotherapy.

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What Is Stage Iv Breast Cancer

Stage IV is the most advanced stage of breast cancer. It has spread to nearby lymph nodes and to distant parts of the body beyond the breast. This means it possibly involves your organs such as the lungs, liver, or brain or your bones.

Breast cancer may be stage IV when it is first diagnosed, or it can be a recurrence of a previous breast cancer that has spread.

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Am I Still At Risk Of Local Recurrence If I Have Had A Mastectomy

Yes. Local recurrence can also happen after a mastectomy, although the likelihood is usually low.

Some of the signs of local recurrence after mastectomy include

• A lump or raised bump in or under the skin, especially near the previous mastectomy scar
• Changes to the skin, including redness or thickening

After reconstruction a local recurrence can appear at the suture line of the flap or in front of the implant. When its in the skin itself, it is red and raised. Reconstruction rarely if ever hides a recurrence. With implants, the recurrences are in front of the implant. With a flap, the recurrences are not in the flap itself but along the edge of the breast skin.

Local recurrence after mastectomy is often described as a chest wall recurrence, which isnt entirely accurate because it implies that the cancer is in the muscle or bone. But usually such a recurrence appears in the skin and fat where the breast was before, and only rarely does it include the muscle.

Ninety percent of local recurrences following mastectomy happen within the first five years after the mastectomy. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of women with local recurrences after mastectomy have already been diagnosed with metastatic disease, and another 20 to 30 percent will develop it within a few months of diagnosis. Therefore, just as with local recurrences after breast conservation, tests should be done to look for distant disease.

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Stages Of Breast Cancer

Your breast cancer stage indicates the severity of the disease upon diagnosis. Your breast cancer stage indicates the severity of the disease upon diagnosis. Your cancer stage will always stay the same, even if the cancer shrinks or spreads during or after treatment. For instance, if youre diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer, but the tumor later grows and spreads, its not considered stage 3 or 4 breast cancer. To determine whether the cancer has responded to treatment, a new stage may later be assigned an r in front of it to show that its different from the original stage.

Breast cancer staging is classified by:

• The size and location of the tumor
• Whether the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes or other parts of the body
• The grade of the tumoror how likely it is to grow and spread
• Whether certain biomarkershormone receptors or other proteinshave been found

All these attributes help your care team determine how to treat your cancer.

To assess the location, size and spread of cancer, your care team will use the TNM Staging System, developed and updated for breast cancer by the American Joint Committee on Cancer .

• TNM stands for Tumor-Node-Metastasis, which are important factors in determining the severity of your cancer.
• All cancers may be evaluated by TNM markers, but breast cancer staging also uses a few extra criteria for a more detailed description.
• Ultimately, your specific combination of TNM and these other markers will determine your cancers stage.