Cancer Discussions, Cancer Support and Community Connection Forum - January 15th, 2010 - 1 Comment
5 year prognosis of Ovarian Cancer?
My friend had ovarian cancer last year but she is in remission now. It was stage 3. I heard that victims of ovarian cancer only have about a 5 year life span even after being cured and in remission? Can anbody confirm that? She is only 18 now so am I supposed to expect that she probably won’t live much longer? Or are these numbers figured for older women since that is typically when women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer? She has been in remission for a year and 2 months now and is totally fine and doing good and her protein level is still going down lower into the normal range, her oncologist says that she doesn’t expect it to come back and that she can look forward to a long and healthy life but are they just telling her what she wants to hear? Is there any real risk?
Prognosis and treatment is determined by stage. You can’t expect a stage 1 to have the same prognosis as a stage 4. Cancer survival in most cases is measured in 5 year survival rates. This is the percentage of people still alive 5 years from diagnosis with the same kind of cancer at the same stage. Doctors do not tell patients what they want to hear it is their job to tell them the truth good or bad. Unless the cancer can be completely removed while it is localized there is always a real risk of recurrence.