Brief Answer:
The median survival in metastatic breast cancer is 3 years in recent times

Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXX,
Thanks for writing in to us.

I have served in a cancer institute for few years as a radiologist and participated in researches and seen many cancer patients similar to that of your close friend. First I pray to God to give her the strength to go through the battle against cancer and also pray for an extended survival.

You are aware that every treating every cancer patient is different and there are many factors which come into play when we talk about patient survival with chemotherapy.

Studies show that the median survival in metastatic breast cancer patients with chemotherapy is 3 years from the time of detection of cancer and this has been unchanged in 20 years.

There may be a handful of lucky patients who will survive with chemotherapy for just over 5 years and this in roughly 1 in 5 patients having metastatic breast cancer who are getting chemotherapy and other forms of treatment.

Metastatic breast cancer patient survival till 10 years is difficult to imagine.

When we talk of chemotherapy in cancer, the chemotherapeutic medicine can either cause shrinkage of the lesions, can stop the further growth of the lesions or be resistant to the cancer.

In the case where there is shrinkage of lesion, we call is good response to treatment. If there is such control that the lesions are stable and neither increasing or decreasing in size then it is stable disease. If the cancer lesions increase in size and number after chemotherapy then it is resistant to the particular chemotherapy and new drugs are to be given.

Being a Radiologist, I have had many opportunities to look at such responses of chemotherapy in hundreds of patients and most of the metastatic cancers are unfortunately in the situation where chemotherapy can do little to stop multiplication of cancer cells. However, because of chemotherapy I have seen my patients have an extended survival of up to 2 years than without treatment.

May I discuss with you that the survival and expectancy in metastatic breast cancer depends a lot on the will power of the patient to fight cancer. Family support and close friends like you can contribute in extending survival in breast cancer patients. The general condition of the patient and pain relief are matters which need to be discussed regularly with her doctor along with the chemotherapy schedules. These factors also help in extending patient survival.

If you can send me medical imaging reports of scans done recently then probably I can discuss in more detail regarding the current situation of your friend. Please also include the day when she was first diagnosed to have metastatic breast cancer. Any treatment details on the chemotherapy medicines given and number of cycles will help in more accurate discussion.

Hope your query is answered.
Please do write back if you have any doubts.

Regards,

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