What Is The Life Expectancy Of A Person With Metastatic Breast Cancer?

Posted on Thu, 3 Dec 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 3 Dec 2015 Answered on

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : Maybe you can help. I have a friend that has Metastatic breast cancer and it has spread to her liver and breast. I'm not sure if cancer in her liver is on one spot or spread. She is in her late 40's. I know every situation is different with this sort of cancer but with chemotherapy, what do you think her life expectancy is? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Answered by Dr. Shoaib Khan (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
In my opinion, about 2 years if further spread takes place

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome.

Thank you for writing to us.

I have gone through your query with diligence and would like you to know that I am here to help. From what you have described, your friend has Stage IV breast cancer. With adequate chemotherapy and other modalities of treatment, the 5-year survival rate is about 22 % (which is being extremely optimistic).

I want you to understand that when a patient having Breast cancer moves from Stage 3 to Stage 4, the 5-year survival rate chances drastically from 73 % (Stage 3) to 22 % (Stage 4).

I hope you find my response helpful. I am extremely sorry to be the one informing you about this. Please feel free to write back to me for any further clarifications, I would be more than happy to help.

Best wishes.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar