Advanced breast cancer, which can be divided into stage 3 and stage 4 breast cancer, is a very misunderstood disease. The general consensus about cancer is that if caught early and given the right treatment, most cancers are curable; most but not all, and advanced breast cancer falls under that category. Both stage 3 and stage 4 breast cancer are considered to be advanced; however, while the 5-year survival rate of stage 3 breast cancer is 72%, the 5-year survival rate of stage 4 breast cancer is at 22%. Such is the paradox.
What is advanced stage breast cancer?
Breast cancer arises when abnormal cancerous cells in the breast grow and multiply continuously and evolve into a tumor. The starting point is often the ducts or the lobules of the breasts and the armpits. As discussed above, advanced breast cancer is divided into stage 3 and stage 4. Stage 3 of breast cancer is locally advanced; meaning cancer has spread to lymph nodes as well as other nearby tissues of the breast, while stage 4 is metastatic, where cancer has spread to other organs and sites of the body.
What is the confusion?
1. Doesn’t catching it early make it curable?
Advanced stage breast cancer is not cured if caught early, but it is surely treatable depending on other disease factors.
2. What is the duration of the treatment?
The treatment does not END. It is an ongoing treatment. This battle is fought everyday through different breast cancer treatments.
3. Does it ever get easier?
In terms of the norm of survivorship today, no. But, with treatment that has advanced quite a lot and understanding of the disease it becomes a way of life.
4. Can the right treatment or preventive measures stop the progress?
For advanced breast cancer, the answer is not that simple. Even with all the right treatments & the right preventive measures, it does NOT become curable or stops progression. However, the new age breast cancer treatments offered by expert oncologists like Dr. Manish Singhal, a top cancer specialist in Delhi, can help to a great extent.
What is it like to live with advanced breast cancer?
Breast cancer is one disease with different ramifications depending on the staging. Few people understand that and try to put all stages of breast cancer under the same umbrella. That is why living with advanced breast cancer isn't the hardest part, accepting the prognosis and the uncertainty regarding advanced breast cancer is.
The first step to living and living well with breast cancer is to understand that it is different for different people and to accept that there might not be a cure at hand for you, but there are treatments that have shown great improvements.
So, what are the breast cancer treatment options offered to advanced breast cancer patients by the best cancer doctors in the world?
For people with advanced breast cancer, the treatment is often systemic and not surgical. The treatment options are:
· Hormone Therapy
-Hormone receptor-positive cancer
According to some of the best cancer doctors, women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer are often first treated with hormone therapy. Also, hormone therapy may be combined with targeted drugs like CDK4/6 inhibitor, everolimus, or a PI3K inhibitor, in certain cases.
-Hormone receptor-negative cancer
If you asked an experienced oncologist in Delhi NCR or anywhere else about breast cancer treatment for hormone receptor-negative cancer, he/she would tell you that chemotherapy may be the best option in those cases because hormone therapy does not work then.
· Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is given to several types of patients requiring advanced breast cancer treatment. According to experienced professionals like Dr. Manish Singhal, a best oncologist in Delhi NCR, HER2-positive cancers, HER2-negative cancers in women with a BRCA gene mutation, HER2-negative breast cancers in women with a PIK3CA mutation, or Triple-negative breast cancer, are treated through different doses of medication either along with chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, inhibitors like PI3K inhibitor, and when normal chemo drugs no longer work, then platinum chemo drugs.
· Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy too is used in combination with chemotherapy and targeted drugs to improve the survival rate of certain advanced breast cancer cases.
There have been several advancements in advanced breast cancer treatment made by some of the best cancer doctors and researchers globally. Even then, advanced-stage breast cancer remains incurable but abundantly treatable and manageable. Like any chronic disease, while advanced breast cancer does not go away completely, it goes through periods of remission and disease progression.
The next few steps to accept and live with advanced breast cancer are:
· Keep consulting your oncologist for new advancements. You can also go for different consults regarding the best breast cancer treatment in Delhi or your locality.
· Keep your hope up but be informed.
· Share your mental turmoil with a specialist or your loved ones.
· Get your family/friends into your circle.
· Join a support group.
· Do your own research and if you need more insights, you can consult an oncologist with extensive experience like Dr. Manish Singhal, the best breast cancer doctor in Delhi NCR.
· Live your life to the fullest.
The ending note
If anything, take one lesson from this, a diagnosis of advanced breast cancer is not a death sentence. Your journey is not defined by the statistics you see everywhere, but by your own body and it's capabilities. Everybody is different, every journey of advanced breast cancer is different. So, keep your chin up, keep yourself informed, and work in unison with the best cancer doctors in town, for Delhi, it is Dr. Manish Singhal, the best oncologist in Delhi NCR, to create a better life for you.