Breast cancer is the presence and development of cancer cells in the human body, especially starting the damage from the breast region. Women are more prone to this type of cancer, since they have the estrogen and the progesterone hormones in high number which are the vital causes for the occurrence of breast cancer. Since these hormones are present in least quantities in men, they are less prone. Also, the development of breast cancer can be classified into various phases, namely from stage 0 to stage 4, among which stage 4 is considered to be the end stage. In this article, we will have an inner look at the stage 4 breast cancer.
What is Stage 4 Breast Cancer:
The stage 4 breast cancer is an advanced level of the breast cancer and is also called as the metastasis cancer. In this stage, the tumor cells will have been spread to all the other organs of the body starting from one breast to another and then spreads to the breast bones, which evasively starts spreading to all the other organs of the body and takes the control over your immune system. Even though, the cancer cells that affected the breast bones, it cannot be treated as bone cancer and do medication in that regarded, rather it would be treated with the root cause and medications will be based on that.
Understanding Metastasis:
In view of making the readers to get clearly understand about the stage 4 breast cancer, it would be essential if they can understand what metastasis is and its role in the breast cancer.The term metastasis is used to refer the tumor cells has already started to spread the infection all over the body and has started to infect the other cells, apart from the region where it actually evolved. It should be noted cautiously, if a physician denotes that a person is in her stage 4 of breast cancer, it is obvious that the cancer has already spread all over the patient’s body including the brain.
Symptoms:
The symptoms for this stage is not common for all, as it varies from person to person based on the level of impact the tumor cells has created in the patient’s body and the damage it has made by spreading to the other organs in the body. Even though, it is believed that are no specific medications for curing the patients from stage 4 cancer, it can be well protected and kept under control without any further damages to the remaining portion of the body and it may also help in ensuring the extension of happy living days.
Survival Rates:
The survival rates of patients from stage 4 breast cancer patients is at a minimal level and it is denoted that only 22 people out of 100 have chances of survival in this stage of cancer.The recent study that has been done by the American Cancer Society has revealed that survival after diagnosis of stage 4 cancer is only limited to fewer years in common. More specifically, the fewer number of years is usually less than 4 to 5 years of their lifespan. This is comparatively low when compared with previous stage of cancer as the survival rate is more than 70% for the same number of years of living after diagnosis in stage 3 cancer.
Let us clearly have a look of the factors which determines the actual survival rate of a patient after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer are,
- Age is considered to be the topmost priority when it comes to the rate of survival in the stage 4 cancer.
- Secondly, the general health and appetite of a person also determines the chances of survival among the affected patients.
- The next ideal thing to look out for is the intensity of tumor cells in the body and the number of unaffected cells in the body.
- Tissues are the major constituents of each cell in everyone’s body. It is to be determined that what types of tissues are affected by cancer cells to find the survival rates of a person.
- Lastly, it wholly depends upon the confidence level of the person to increase the maximum level of survival rates.
Treatment Options:
Even though it is a well known fact that there are no treatment options to get fully cured of breast cancer in stage 4, some medication and health practices may increase the life term of a patient suffering from stage 4 cancer. The treatment mainly focuses on to provide good last days for your life.
- Blood tests can be made to mark the presence of tumors in the body so as to find the development of tumor cells that are growing in the body which may help the doctor to some extent to decide on the treatment to be given to the patients.
- Hormone therapy is one variety of treatment where the estrogen cells are being protected from getting acquired by the tumor cells, preventing the growth of the cancer cells in our body.
- The hormone therapy is done by suppressing the ovaries in the females who have not attained the menopause stage and for the females who have attained the menopause level can have varieties of hormone therapy one after another if the previous therapy is unsuccessful.
- Chemotherapy is also used to control the anti-receptors in the human cells and control the prevention of the growth of cancer cells.
- There are also several other treatments which can be done for the metastasis stage of breast cancer in women.
Quick Thought:
It is essential for everyone to know and realize that, if a patient is affected with breast cancer and is in the stage 4, self-confidence and the treatment which she undergoes would be the only best possible solution to have at least a minimal survival rate. Hence it is very much important to get in touch with your medical experts for the particular problem very frequently in order to attain maximum survival rate.