I also took Tamoxifan for 5 yrs and Letrozole was a trial, which I took for 5 years as a preventive drugs

24 years is a long time. You are right that it is not possible to tell if someone is cancer free. You may hear the term "no evidence of disease" or "NED." This means that, based on everything we know about a person, there is no evidence of cancer. Some people have written about "dancing with NED." This speaks to the dance we do with uncertainty after a serious life event.

That would be ideal. Then we would not have to give chemotherapy if there were no cells. We make an educated guess based on data from thousands of people, but we agree that we can do better.

So happy that this was helpful. Wishing you all the best. You are getting really good care.

I was diagnosed with her 2 positive breast cancer end 2022 , had targeted therapy Tamoxifen, then mastectomy, now I'm on kadcyla 11 treatments and taking Exemestane, I didnt have Radiotherapy, did they offer you a mastectomy? The oncologist said I'm cancer free and I have to take the inhibitors for 5 years, to stop a recurrence, I did wonder how they know I'm cancer free without MRI ,guessing it's the bloods they check to ?

Thanks so much for the feedback. In general, people diagnosed with melanoma and triple-negative breast cancer should have genetic counseling and perhaps testing. Just a thought reading your history. Triple-negative breast cancer warrants testing on its own. Keep coming back.

@@yerbba I did have the genetic testing and it was negative for all known DNA factors.

I was diagnosed with Stage 3 melanoma in 1998, I have not had a reocurrance to date, and under regular care . I was told by my dermatoligist I have to been seen every 3 months for the rest of my life because of the chemo and rads and the risk or the melanoma coming back.

Thank you for watching and the positive feedback! Yerbba appreciates you!

Thank you for your continuous support!

Thank you for watching. We are so glad you found this video helpful!

Thanks for writing. Yes, we do need to see if "liquid biopsies" are helpful in improving outcomes.

Thank you for watching and your positive feedback! Yerbba appreciates you.

Thank you for watching and the positive feedback.

We're glad to hear that the video helped to alleviate worries. It's understandable to have concerns about follow-up. Thank you for watching!

Thank you so much for your kind words! We're grateful for your support and thrilled to hear that our videos have been helpful to you even after your cancer treatment. Let us know if there is a topic you'd like to see. Wishing you continued health.

Thanks for watching. So happy it was helpful.

Thank you for watching! We are so glad you found this video and its explanation to be helpful. We are rooting for you.

Thanks for writing. Ultrasound after surgery may be helpful if the physical exam is difficult.

Absolutely, being informed empowers you to make decisions that align with your values and priorities.

We're glad you found this video helpful! Thank you for watching!

Thank you for sharing your experience with the Yerbba community. Scanxiety can be difficult and is a real thing. Yerbba is rooting for you!

You and I are on the same page, me too

@@sue8319 Sue, thank-you for reaching out in solidarity. It's good to know that your not the only one feeling nervous and anxious. Not knowing something has got to be the worst. My last mammogram revealed a 2.5 cm tumor with 3 positive lymph nodes Her 2+. Sue I can only reach out to give you a virtual hug. & say something cliche like ( you got this girl ). Best wishes to you that all will be clear & we'll be just fine.

Please don’t think of it even now as ‘running to a Dr’. Let the team and your GP do their job and keep an eye on you. If things don’t feel right, don’t hesitate to let them know.

Thank you for watching and being part of the Yerbba community.

Thanks for sharing your story. Just as a point of information for our other viewers, decisions about chemotherapy are separate from surgical decisions. That is, someone who has a lumpectomy may not require chemotherapy, and someone who has a mastectomy may be offered chemotherapy to treat disease elsewhere in the body. Wishing you the best, and keep coming back. Greetings to your husband as well.

Thank you for sharing your experience with Anastrozole and Zoledronic infusions. I'm starting Anastrozole in a week. I signed up for Zoledronic infusions and withdrew after reading about debilitating side effects. I'm on Calcium, Vit D3, Magnesium G., K2MK7 supplements with weekly Fosamax. It's encouraging to know that not everyone suffers intolerable side effects on these treatments.

@@mjdsouthsf and @yerba. I don’t regret any decisions that I made; however, my Consultant completely stumped me when she said that I was on the criteria for samples of my breast cancer to be sent to America for further investigation. So taking the Anastrozole was delayed until their ‘findings report’ came back. The results came back the first week of January 2022, and the report stated that due to the life long medication that I am on for epilepsy; under no circumstances was I to be given either Chemotherapy or Radiology. Either of those treatments would annihilate all the good work that they had done since 1978 and I would be back to square one. My own personal advice to anyone is to give as much information as possible about personal medical information. A case of ‘Belts and Braces’, to cover all involved. Health mustn’t be a guessing game. ((((Hugs to all))))

@@yerbba ....Many thanks for your reply. However, it was my Consultant who told me that her plan was first a lumpectomy followed by Radiology, and lastly Hormonal Treatment. It was MY decision to leapfrog the first two and go straight for a partial mastectomy as I felt that at approaching 69 years old; I had no time for vanity, had I been a lot younger, my decision might have been different. However, it’s my body, therefore my choice and the Consultant agreed. After all, I could just have said “Thanks but no thanks; I’ll enjoy the time I have left no matter how long or short that may be. Today, I have taken delivery of my medication and was shocked to see that statins have been included on the basis of my previous blood test that showed that my LDL cholesterol is slowly rising and I know what that means but was I offered an appointment with the Health Nurse to discuss diet? NO, I was not. The surgery pharmacist decided I need statins even though I told him that I wanted a few days to think about it. Well, I won’t be using them. Do I want headaches? Do I want stiff joints? Do I want constipation? Hell, no I don’t. I get enough of that from the Calciferol. I’ll adjust my diet and enjoy the rest of the time I have got. BTW, I have never eaten so much fruit, Apples🍏 Bananas 🍌 🥑 Avocados and Grapes 🍇 in all my life. Plus, loads of green vegetables. Plus upped my intake of oily fish and various beans. Three bean salad is delicious 😋

You are not alone! Many people delay a few weeks for lots of reasons, including being scared. Three weeks are extremely unlikely to have changed your prognosis.

Your question makes a lot of sense. After mastectomy, there is no (or very little) remaining breast tissue. Unless someone has a lot of redundant breast tissue after mastectomy, there is no benefit from imaging. This is why a lot of people get mastectomy. Recurrences after mastectomy generally are on the surface of the skin and show up as non-compressible lumps. These do not show up on MRI. Hope this is helpful.

And how are recurrences on the skin treated?

Thanks for the great questions. We actually have a really hard time studying the therapies you write about because people with cancer do not want to take more things, and people without it (even those at high risk) are not easy to recruit. We are trying. The 5-year mark for people with Stage I, II, or III disease starts at the time people are free of disease (specifically, after surgery). For people with advanced/metastatic disease, the 5-years starts at the time of diagnosis. We do have people live 10 or more years with metastatic disease, including people 70 and over. We hope this is helpful.

So happy the video was helpful. Monitoring the unaffected breast is an important part of your followup. Thank you for writing.

You are correct that the treatment is essentially the same. The biology (personality, including HER2, ER/PR, and grade) drive treatment recommendations as much as does the stage in such a tumor.

You were presumed to be cancer free, as far as it's possible to tell, before you started treatment. The scans afterwards are useful only if they show advanced disease. That is, a negative scan does not mean there are not microscopic areas of cancer. This is why we treat people with everything we have when they are first diagnosed. Yerbba is rooting for you!

Thanks so much for sharing your story. It's so normal to be nervous. If you find your anxiety is interfering with your quality of life, make sure to tell your medical team.

On oral hormones here, afraid of bone mets 🙈, so I guess same here 🫶🏽😘

Sending you all the best wishes in the world.

Unless someone has symptoms that are concerning for recurrence, there is no benefit from surveillance scans.

We're sorry to hear about your experience. It's crucial to advocate for scans if you have symptoms. Always speak up if you feel your concerns are not being addressed. Thank you for sharing your experience.

CT scans do give a lot more radiation therapy than a regular x-ray. Over many years, the excess radiation therapy may cause problems, especially on a population level. As a reminder, you can "negotiate" with your doctor, explaining why you would rather not have scans. In addition, there is no evidence that having this type of scan ("surveillance scans") improves survival, so someone in your situation could use that as a discussion point. Hope this is helpful.

Very helpful. Thank you for your response.@@yerbba

These highly sensitive tests have not been shown to improve outcome (yet). Remember that, if we do find evidence of distant disease before treatment, the goal shifts from cure to management (control) of the disease. Getting these tests after completion of therapy means that you are treatment for longer, but the outcome is the same. You are just aware earlier that you cancer has recurred. Treatment will work the same if you are diagnosed when you have symptoms, and you won't be a "cancer patient" for as long.

My oncologist said the same thing….. it would be like chasing rabbits down the hole and could even show that early and then be fought off by your body naturally.

Thank you for sharing your experience with the Yerbba community. It sounds as if you've had a terrible run of it. It's understandable to feel frustrated and let down by the healthcare system when facing such a serious situation. We're here to provide support and information as you navigate this journey, and we hope for the best possible care and outcomes for you moving forward.

Am praying for you. People in the medical field work with so many patients sometimes they forget we know about our bodies and they may also forget to think of certain situations unless we remind them (push for what you think you need), because they are human too. Many think they are above and know all things, but they do not. Yes, they are highly educated, but they are human. They probably want to do the best for you, but in some way have failed you. Be persistent and keep pushing them for what ever it is that you need. If they don’t comply, seek a different person. I am sorry you are going through this and will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I am also monitoring some nodules in my lungs and have had to push them to look at that again. They wanted to move on and ignore it, but in my last scan, there was a new, bigger nodule and I had not been “sick” besides breast cancer. We will examine it again and keep an eye on it. Hugs to you and I hope you get some treatment that works for you. ❤

MRIs are not perfect, and it's also possible that these areas were not seen back in May because they were too small to be detected. If these do end up being malignant, you can certainly bring up having additional scans with your medical team. Come back and let us know how things turn out.

I think it could be like she said, maybe too small. My tumor was 4 mm when first found and in a month and a half (the length of time I had to wait for surgery), it doubled in size to 8 mm. It could be they grew at a rate similar to mine and they just did not show up earlier. How big were the masses?

Seeing your medical team with your new pain would be important here. Your primary care physician can refer you to a cancer doctor if you're no longer seeing your oncology team regularly.

Sorry if there was confusion. No, most people who have not had a recurrence after 5 or 10 years will not have a recurrence after 20 years.

Great question. The same recommendations apply even in people with TNBC.

There is no evidence that they should be unless people have symptoms.

This is an excellent question and a little different from the topic of this video. Scans, such as PET scans, are unable to detect small foci (spots) of cancer. It takes 1 billion cells together in a clump to show up on scans. Because we know that even small clumps may have spread before the primary tumor was removed, the results of such scans do not really reassure us. There are some people in whom we do scans, including people with symptoms and people with a higher likelihood of metastases at diagnosis, specifically people with Stage III (3) breast cancer. When we do find cancer in other parts of the body, the goal is to manage the disease rather than to cure it.

​@@yerbba9

Sounds like a good plan. Scans do not confirm that there is no additional cancer in other parts of the body. Wishing you well!

Liquid biopsies have not been shown to improve patients' life expectancy or quality of life. If abnormal, they can turn someone's life upside down.