Cancer Discussions, Don't Have Cancer Forum - December 19th, 2009 - 6 Comments
My sister (66) is a 9 year breast cancer survivor; took Tamoxifin for 5 years, & now in 5th year of Femara….?
The usual regimen for Tamoxifin is 5 years, and also 5 years for Femara. We’ve been discussing what might be her next medication for cancer treatment. Does anyone have the knowledge & experience?
There will be no next medication. She will be done. Congratulations!
I say the following only to stress the importance of continuing annual checkups, and not to be a "downer", but women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer never really get to a point where they are "way beyond" their relapse risk. Obviously, most are cured this far out. However, there is a continuous ~1-2% risk of relapse annually on average for all ER+ patients. This means that out of the 100 people alive and well this far out, about 1-2 each year can still relapse because of persistent cancer cells. The cells appear to be able to lie dormant for long periods of time.
Again, not to take away from the joy of this moment, but this fact can cause a lot of confusion for the very few patients who have a very late recurrence (Why did this happen? I thought I was cured…).
Many blessings to your sister for a long and happy life
Party time!
She gets to stop taking anything and just maintain a normal healthy lifestyle with regular check-ups.
She is one of the lucky ones, that’s great. Your sister is way beyond the recurrence danger zone lasting 3 – 5 years. I do not believe that any medication is suggested for people in her position. She is officially "back to normal".
CONGRATS to your sister
im so happy for her
i really don’t know but she should talk to her doctor
best wishes for a long healthy life
That’s should be it. I’m surprised that after 5 yrs she would still be one it but you said it’s 9 yrs. I don’t know but to me it seems long enough. If I’m wrong, believe me, someone will let me know. I just don’t understand that. So hopefully, she won’t need anything else.
Please tell your sister to look into low dose naltrexone (3.0 to 4.5 mg), it works by causing the body to boost the immune system. Everyone should be taking this as a preventative measure against disease but pharmaceutical companies have no reason to bring a useful off-patent drug to market that they can’t make money off of….it’s an old drug that was found to be quite useful in normalizing immune systems at a low dose. Lots of info on the links. Continued victory to her!
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