brief question about cancer

[imaginaryfriend]

dp's friend's partner was diagnosed with a very virulent breast cancer just over a year ago. She had a double mastectomy and a long course of chemo and seemed to be rallying. However she's just found out that it has metastasized to her lung. She's been undergoing further chemo but no surgery has been offered.

I don't like to ask her or her dp about her long-term outlook in this situation. Could anybody with experience of cancer give me some advice?

Its imposiible to say I'm afraid. However, survival rates once breast cancer has metastasized have improved hugely over the last 20 years and its now often managed as a chronic rather than immediately terminal illness. That said, I don't want to give you false hope, its a serious and life shortening progression but there are a number of new drugs available these days to help prolong her life and maintain the quality of her life. You can get lots of good information from the website cancerbackup.
Hope that helps

My aunt had breast cancer followed by a mastectomy and chemo, hers returned a year latter and had spread to her lungs, she went through more chemo but sadly gave up her fight on x-mas day (5 years ago) . But this was 5 years ago and things/drugs have come along alot since then. To be honest it doesn't sound great for her but i'm sure she will get the best treatment.

You may find Breast Cancer Care helpful. They can offer help and advice to friends and family as well as the patient. Your friend may have been given some rather raw statistics, but even with those, you never know which side you are on.

It is difficult to know what to say, but it is important to press on and find a way through!

Sorry to hear it, IF. I have a friend in the US who is still living with lung mets (and bone mets, for that matter) from BC five years after initial diagnosis - she's been through a lot, and her health has been up and down over the years, but she has worked p/t throughout and brought up her teenage daughters. She is constantly on meds, but Pheebe is right - a lot has changed on the BC front, drug-wise, in recent years.

Wishing her well.

Meant to say, it probably also depends on the type of BC she has.

Thanks so much for the replies.

I don't know what kind of BC she had except that it was a very fast spreading one. She'd had a mammogram just 6 months before and in that time it had grown enough to require her to have a double mastectomy.

Cancerbackup is also a good site.

Thanks I'll try cancerbackup