stage iv breast cancer

[silentcatastrophe]

A friend from our old home has been diagnosed with this. She's in about late 40s. Is the treatment more dangerous than the disease? Effing cancer. I know a lot of women who have survived bc treatment. I am feeling sad.

?

Well, stage 4 is never a good thing, but it does depend on why it is stage 4 - a single bone met in your rib has a lot better chance of cure than liver or brain mets. But it can often be controlled for some time, even when they don't think that it can be cured, and the doctors are always careful to balance the risk/effects of treatment against the benefit

silentcatastrophe

I'm, very sorry to hear about your friend. I am being treated for BC at the moment but mine is not stage 4.

There is a very helpful MN thread called Tamoxifen which I and others with BC use a lot for support - you'd be welcome to join us and you might find it helpful.

The official Breast Cancer Care site is also very informative about stages and everything.
It can also be very sacry however so to be used with great care.

She's being treated at the Marsden. I had a mastectomy a few years ago, and since then have met a lot of women with bc. This is the first person I have known before diagnosis.