Can You Help Me Answer Several Questions About Breast Cancer?
1. If a male's mother had breast cancer, does this increase his risk of getting any type of cancer? 2. If someone underwent chemotherapy and radiation for chemotherapy and survives, and is also in remission and never has cancer again, will their experience with cancer and cancer treatment shorten their life span? 3. What is the likelihood of someone's breast cancer relapsing if they successfully underwent chemotherapy and radiation for it? Thanks for your help. Thank you for the extremely helpful response, and I'm happy to hear that you have NED.
Cancer - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
1) Breast cancer is hereditary in only 5 - 10% of cases. If the man's mother is one of those 5-10% whose breast cancer was due to one of the rare inherited BRCA genes, then he has a 50% chance of having inherited that gene. If he has inherited the gene, his risk of breast cancer is 1% with the BRCA1 gene and 6% with the BRCA2 gene. This is low, but is many times the breast cancer risk of a man who doesn't carry a BRCA gene. If he hasn't inherited the gene, his risk of breast cancer isn't increased. Nor is it increased if his mother was one of the 90 - 95% of breast cancer patients whose breast cancer was not hereditary. No, he is not at risk of other types of cancer, whether or not his mother's breast cancer was hereditary. 2) I don't believe there is any evidence of this; someone else - Denise or Spreedog perhaps - will be able to tell you whether this is ever the case. 3) People who have hadbreast cancer and are in remission are told that they have 'no evidence of disease' (or NED - my favourite word!) rather than that they are cured or have the 'all clear'. This is because breast cancer can return at any time, even years later - although that doesn't mean it will. Most recurrences happen within two years of diagnosis and treatment. After 5 years the chances of recurrence are statistically very low, and continue to fall with every passing year. It DOESN'T mean breast cancer is never cured, simply that there is no way of telling whether a particular person's cancer will recur. Many people live the rest of their long health lives without recurrence after breast cancer treatment.
2 :
Lo_mcg has given you a good answer. Regarding, question # 2. "2. If someone underwent chemotherapy and radiation for chemotherapy and survives, and is also in remission and never has cancer again, will their experience with cancer and cancer treatment shorten their life span?" There is no evidence that your lifespan will be reduced, no.
3 :
1. If any family member has had cancer then checking your health would be a very important part of your routine as you get older. It does not necessarily mean that YOU will have cancer in your lifetime but your chances of getting it are stronger than somebody that does not have cancer running in their family. For instance my wife had breast cancer, her dad had skin cancer, her aunt had breast cancer. 2. It could possibly because of the toll treatment costs. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation is not good for anybody and that is what breast cancer patients undergo to survive it. I read somewhere every time you get surgery it shortens life a little bit. I cannot remember where I heard it from but it makes sense. 3.It usually happens within five years of original diagnosis. They have survival rates that are five years long for staging. For example somebody with stage 0 breast cancer has between 100-95% survival rate for a five year period. Another patient with stage 3 breast cancer has about a 54% survival rate. Any cancer patient without insurance no matter what stage survival rates drop to 52%. A friend's mom had breast cancer at age 65, for ten years she was NED and everyone thought it was successfully treated. At 75 it returned and she opted to not go through treatment again. Despite family pressures she followed her wishes and died six months later. All the things done to fight breast cancer is a a word HARSH. If your mom had breast cancer then I would just take care of yourself by avoiding bad habits like smoking. Get your check-ups annually and enjoy life to the fullest.
Read more discussions :
