New Study Reveals Women with Advanced Breast Cancer are Living Longer

Metastatic breast cancer (advanced breast cancer)  is considered to be incurable and progressive cancer among women but a recent study unveiled that women suffering from metastatic breast cancer tend to live longer in the USA.

According to the new analysis in the US, in 1990, there were 105,354 women alive with the disease and the present figure of survival is 154,794. It was reported that 17 per cent of women under the age group of 64 who were diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer survived for 10 more years. This is because of  "new therapies targeting the triggers of the disease as well as improved palliative care mean women,"according to a report in The Washington Post.

The survival rate of women under the age of 49 diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer between the years 1992 to 1994 has just been 18 per cent. The survival rate doubled to 36 per cent from 2005 to 2012. The reason for such a tremendous growth of the survival rate is the treatment which is being offered to cure metastatic breast cancer.

Better imaging techniques that detect cancer at an earlier stage is also one of the reasons of growth in survival rate.

“It’s difficult to know the contribution of early imaging on one hand and better treatment on the other,” said the lead author, Angela B. Mariotto, a statistician with the National Cancer Institute. “More recent use of imaging may contribute to some of these improvements because women are diagnosed earlier,” she added.

The treatment for some specific tumours has certainly increased over a period of time. The drug Herceptin, which was approved for medical use in the late 1990s, has been shown to extend the lives of women with certain types of advanced breast cancers.

The doctors in the US are quite optimistic about the treatment for breast cancer and the survival rate complements their practice. They feel that the disease is still a chronic condition for women.

Health experts recommend for a daily check-up of lumps in the breast which is one of the most prominent symptoms of breast cancer among women.

Also read: 7 Signs and Symptoms of Breast Cancer