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  • Stage 4 breast cancer occurs when cancerous cells spread beyond breast tissue to invade other organs in your body. While the prognosis for patients with Stage 4 breast cancer is worse than other stages, a person can survive Stage 4 breast cancer.

    Statistics

    Approximately 20 percent of women who receive a diagnosis of Stage 4 breast cancer survive for at least five years, reports the American Cancer Society.

    Factors

    Factors that determine survival after a Stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis include the type of breast cancer, where the cancer has spread and the patient's age and general health. How well the patient's body responds to treatment also impacts the likelihood of surviving the disease.

    Types of Treatment

    Because Stage 4 breast cancer has spread, doctors typically employ treatments that affect the whole body, called systemic treatments. Chemotherapy, hormone therapy and cell-targeted therapy or a combination of two or all three are the most common treatments.

    Function

    The goal of treatment of Stage 4 breast cancer is to reduce the size of the tumor and prevent the cancer from spreading further to prolong the patient's life as much as possible, explains the National Cancer Institute. The treatments contribute to this goal by destroying cells through chemotherapy drugs, robbing the cancerous cells of essential nutrients with targeted-drug therapies and depriving the cells of the estrogen hormones needed to grow.

    Considerations

    Ultimately, an individual's likelihood of surviving Stage 4 breast cancer may vary greatly from statistics. Only an oncologist can give an accurate estimation of a patient's chance of recovering.

    Source:

    American Cancer Society: How is Breast Cancer Staged?

    American Cancer Society: Treatment of Breast Cancer by Stage

    Nancer Cancer Institute: Stage IIIB, Inoperable IIIC, IV, Recurrent, and Metastatic Breast Cancer

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