Can Early Stage Breast Cancer be Cured?

Posted by Shikha Arora on November 18th, 2020

The recent advancements in medical technology have enabled recovery to be more promising for people. It brings hope for cancer patients as well. Breast cancer occurrence in women becomes more frequent with, an increase in age. But if detected on time, it has a high chance of recovery.

Factors that affect prognosis

Determining the outcome of the treatment is different for every patient and is based on the following factors:

• Age
• Medical history
• Response to treatment
• Genetic make up

Stages of breast cancer

The development of breast cancer falls under these stages, depending on where the cancerous cells have spread.

• Stage 0- The condition begins with cancerous cells forming in the milk-duct of your breasts. If the cells remain confined in this region, the cancer is termed as Stage 0. It has the highest chances of recovery, and the patients respond well to treatment.
• Stage 1- Stage 1 of breast cancer arises after micro invasion, which involves the spread of cancerous cells to the surrounding tissue. The recovery rate is still very high for stage 1 patients.
• Stage 2- Stage 2 cancer is when the cells reach the lymph nodes. The survival rate is still promising, although it is lesser than stage 1 patients.
• Stage 3- The survival rate further drops as cancer has now spread to areas of the chest.
• Stage 4- This is the last stage where the cancer is known to have become metastatic, i.e. it has spread to various parts of the body. The survival rate is the lowest for this stage.

The good news here is that most cases of breast cancer can be detected in the first or second stage itself. It provides a lot of hope for treatment.

What is the five-year survival rate?

The five-year survival rate is a measure of the extent of cure of cancer. If the patients remain free of cancer for five years, it is believed that cancer has completely left their body. This rate is the highest for stage 0, 1 and 2 patients.

The reoccurrence of cancer after five years is considered to be completely new and not related to previous cancer.

The treatments that are now available for breast cancer patients are far advanced and have fewer side effects. For example- a lumpectomy (removal of only the tumour) can now be performed as an alternative to mastectomy (removal of entire breasts) which was quite radical. Some tumours are caused by hormones. Hormonal therapy can help in the recovery of such patients. The drugs that are now available for cancer treatment provide faster recovery and are more specialized.

With an early diagnosis and the services of the best breast cancer hospital in India, the odds of beating this disease look promisingly good. You cannot ascertain that you will never get the disease, but adopting a better lifestyle by eating healthily and exercising is known to have reduced the risk of developing cancer.