“The discovery of the HER2 protein and medicines that block it has revolutionized treatment for women with cancers that overexpress this protein,” Dr. In recent years, treatment for breast cancer has vastly improved, largely because doctors are able to more accurately target therapy to the type of breast cancer a woman has. “The goal of treatment is to keep patients on their feet as long as possible so that they can continue to do what they want to do,” says Gretchen Kimmick, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, North Carolina. “I’ve had metastatic breast cancer for five years and I’m still kicking,” says Susan Rosen, 53, from Franklin, Massachusetts.Īccording to a 2017 article in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 34 percent of women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer have been living with the disease for five years or longer.
Many women live for decades with metastatic breast cancer.Ī stage 4 diagnosis is not an instant death sentence, says Renee Sendelbach, 40, from Austin, Texas, who was diagnosed seven years ago, when she learned that her breast cancer had moved into her lungs, bones, and lymph nodes. Here are several things you should know about metastatic breast cancer and the women who are living with it.
