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Survivors, Learn Your Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence (And How to Reduce It)
If you’ve had breast cancer, you know the battle isn’t over when your initial treatment is finished.
According to Tara Sanft, MD, a breast oncologist and chief patient experience officer at Yale’s Smilow Cancer Hospital, one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lives. Unfortunately, even after that initial diagnosis and treatment, there’s a six percent chance of a breast cancer recurrence within the first five years, which means cancer can come back or spread to other parts of the body. But cancer isn’t just a five-year battle — in fact, half of recurrences in women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer happen after five years. “A hallmark of hormone receptor-positive cancer,” says Dr. Sanft, “is that a recurrence can happen decades out.”
Source: Katie Couric Media