Is Breast Cancer Ever Cured?
Stearns AT, Hole D, George WD, et al.
Br J Surg 2007;94:957-965
Can cancer patients ever be considered "cured"? To answer this question, the authors looked at yearly mortality rates from 3 different common cancers: breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and colorectal cancer. The data were obtained from long-term cohort studies in Scotland. They observed clearly different mortality patterns. For ovarian and colorectal cancers, the yearly mortality rates were initially quite steep but then declined. After 10 years, patients were either dead from their initial cancer, or, if they had survived, were unlikely to subsequently die from cancer. Breast cancer behaved in a different manner: although the initial mortality rate was lower than for either colorectal or ovarian cancer, even after ten years of follow-up, yearly mortality rates resembled mortality rates observed in the first few years after diagnosis.
Breast cancer behaves in a different manner than other cancers. Many surgeons are aware of this because they are occasionally confronted with a patient with recurrent cancer after many disease-free years. One explanation given by the authors is that late recurrence after apparent cure of breast cancer may be a manifestation of slow-growing micrometastatic disease.
Abstract
Stearns AT, Hole D, George WD, et al.
Br J Surg 2007;94:957-965
Can cancer patients ever be considered "cured"? To answer this question, the authors looked at yearly mortality rates from 3 different common cancers: breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and colorectal cancer. The data were obtained from long-term cohort studies in Scotland. They observed clearly different mortality patterns. For ovarian and colorectal cancers, the yearly mortality rates were initially quite steep but then declined. After 10 years, patients were either dead from their initial cancer, or, if they had survived, were unlikely to subsequently die from cancer. Breast cancer behaved in a different manner: although the initial mortality rate was lower than for either colorectal or ovarian cancer, even after ten years of follow-up, yearly mortality rates resembled mortality rates observed in the first few years after diagnosis.
Breast cancer behaves in a different manner than other cancers. Many surgeons are aware of this because they are occasionally confronted with a patient with recurrent cancer after many disease-free years. One explanation given by the authors is that late recurrence after apparent cure of breast cancer may be a manifestation of slow-growing micrometastatic disease.
Abstract
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