After 5 years cancer free - 1260312

popcorn1
Posts:3

Hi everyone. Just celebrated my 5 year anniversary of being cancer free. Stage 1a Adeno LRL remove VATS surgery. I have a small area in upper lobe that may be BAC but not causing any problems just watching it right now. I am 57 female otherwise healthy with BRAC 1 mutation.

My question is what are the statistics after 5 years for remaining cancer free? I know Statistics are swayed by alot of things but I still like to hear them especially if they are in my favor. Also do the Stats continue to improve or level off at some point.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Cathy

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Reply # - November 5, 2013, 07:29 PM

JimC
Posts: 2753

Hi Cathy,

Congratulations on a fantastic milestone!!

The risk of recurrence drops markedly after a year or two, and in analyzing the data Dr. West has said:

"Clearly, the take-home message is that the risk of recurrence/progression for most patients with potentially curable lung cancer — and this applies to limited disease small cell lung cancer as well — is primarily focused in the first 12-24 months, diminishing thereafter. How early the peak risk is, and how long the tail of recurrence risk goes out, is largely related to the aggressiveness of the underlying cancer."

His discussion can be found here: http://cancergrace.org/lung/2011/08/19/when-do-recurrences-of-lung-canc…

JimC
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Reply # - November 5, 2013, 08:40 PM

Dr West
Posts: 4735

The risk of recurrence is about 1% per year after 4-5 years out. For a very slow-growing cancer like a BAC, though, I think they're not very reliable, since it may be a long time between a 3 mm nodule being detected and the years of follow-up before it's recognized as clearly growing, then biopsied and found to be cancer.

However, the key message that I would impart is that any cancer that recurs more than 5 years after initially developing is clearly following such an indolent pattern that it may take many decades, if ever, to actually progress to a point of clinical relevance.

-Dr. West

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