Can Still Cure If Breast Cancer Entering Stage 4?

Patients with stage 4 breast cancer are considered incurable. However, treatment should still be run to improve the quality of life of patients. Usually, breast cancer patients will be given a prognosis by a doctor. What is the prognosis? Check out the following reviews.

Overview of prognosis

Prognosis is the possibility of patients to recover from breast cancer. Many treatments that can help breast cancer patients live longer and even healed. Even so, breast cancer can also return or spread to other body parts after treatment. 

The prognosis can be performed by the physician by considering many factors, such as: 

• Size of breast cancer     
• Breast cancer stage; whether the cancer is only in the breast or has spread to the lymph nodes or other places in the body.     
• Type of breast cancer     
• Stent hormone receptor cancer     
• HER2 Status     
• How likely the cancer could recur     
• Cell growth rate     
• Age     
• Status of menopause     
• Cancer is triple negative (estrogen receptor negative, negative receptor progesterone and negative HER2)     
• Public health 

Prognosis for stage 4 breast cancer patients 

Stage 4 breast cancer is the most serious stage because most cancer cells have metastasized alias spread to other body parts, such as bones, lungs, liver, lymph nodes, skin, or even your brain.

Reporting from Healthline, National Breast Cancer Foundation, explained that the symptoms of stage 4 cancer is highly dependent on the extent to which cancer cells have spread in the body. Although cancer has metastasized and can not be cured, patients still have to do the treatment. By receiving the right treatment can certainly improve the quality of life of patients, such as chemotherapy, radiation, or immune therapy.

Doctors will also generally recommend palliative treatment, a treatment that prioritizes patient comfort even though he suffered from chronic diseases such as cancer. The procedure is to ensure patients get painkillers, provide nutritional counseling, train relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, and others. In essence, this treatment aims to improve the quality of life of patients.

To determine the prognosis in stage 4 breast cancer patients, usually the doctor will see the age, health and hormone receptor with cancer cells (immune system), the type of tissue affected by cancer, the attitude and outlook of the patient against the illness he suffered. Not only depends on the disease, but also on the spirit of the patient in motivating themselves to heal. According to the University of 

Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), there are some general facts that can help to know the prognosis, such as:    

• Breast cancer causes the most death in women after lung cancer     
• Breast cancer patients in the higher-income groups have higher survival rates than low-income groups.     
• Many women with breast cancer still live longer than predicted. Over the past 10 years, the number of deaths from breast cancer has dropped dramatically.

The survival rate of stage 4 breast cancer patients

   The survival of breast cancer patients is not exactly predictable. However, experts continue to do many ways to improve patient survival. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), breast cancer patients have a 22 percent chance of surviving for five years after an advanced diagnosis. This percentage is much lower than early-stage breast cancer. 

 In stage 3 breast cancer, the relative five-year survival rate is 72%, whereas in stage 2 it is 90%. Because survival rates of stage 4 cancer patients are lower than others, early treatment is very important to do.