How is this most likely to end?

[TheBigZing]

A member of my extended family has cancer.

She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in her late twenties. She was successfully treated, including a mastectomy, and has been in the clear for over a decade, until now.

She is now in her early forties and has found a new lump. She also has secondary tumours in her lungs and spine. I don't recall her having any secondaries last time she had breast cancer.

She is now undergoing a course of chemo treatments.

My question is one that I dare not ask her or her immediate family. How likely is she to recover this time? I want to be prepared for what may come.

If she has secondaries her cancer can only be treated, not cured.
So I'm so sorry but eventually she is likely to lose her life to her cancer. But people do survive for several years with secondaries, the chemo and other treatments can contain the disease, but not get rid of it.

For some people with secondary BC, it is treated almost as a chronic illness, that will need frequent bouts of treatment, but the patient can carry on with a decent quality of life for some while.

I'm sorry to be blunt, it is an upsetting subject. Best wishes to you and your family member.

Its as Kurri says, people can live for many years but needing regular bouts of chemo to knock the cancer back. Oestrogen blocking drugs, eg tamoxifen can also help prolong life. Jane Tomlinson, who raised thousands of pounds for cancer charities lived with the disease for several years, but it is life limiting.
It is such a shame your relative wasnt tested for the breast cancer gene. If positive she could have had the remaining breast tissue removed and not been able to get further tumours.

Thanks for your frank and honest responses. I think I understand now.