So, what are the odds of developing breast cancer? I am using breastcancer.org to answer this question here. They talk about ‘absolute risk’ – this is based on how many in a certain time period/age – and ‘relative risk’ – which compares risk between groups.
In the US, one in eight women will have breast cancer in their lifetimes. The younger you are, the less likely you are to develop an invasive breast cancer. Interestingly, the highest probability for this type of breast cancer appears to occur in your 40s where it jumps to 1 in 69. I’m in the 30-40 range, so my probability was 1 in 228. Crap luck, that.
Things that can increase your risk include family history and genetic mutations. If you have the BRCA1 gene, your chance of developing breast cancer by 80 is 72%. Basically, if you don’t have it by then and you have that gene, you can count yourself lucky. BRCA2 is only 69%. Much better. Kind of. (**Note: Sarcasm in use)
Luckily, the 5-year survival rate is 90%. So there’s that.
My relative risk has probably been high lately due to drinking alcohol. Or not. I did drink too much around the time that we lost our Wee Man Spencer dog in April. He had dementia, and we didn’t fully comprehend how much of our life was going into that little man until he was gone. It was jarring. Anyway, the actual overall risk if you drink two or more alcoholic beverages a day goes from 12% to 18%, so I’ll just suggest you cut down to a few days per week and not drink every day. Sound medical advice. Kidding – I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.
My particular case is synchronous bilateral breast cancer (SBBC). I randomly searched and found some information on surgeons.org about this. 2.3% is the number for two tata diagnosis of invasive breast cancer. My left isn’t invasive at this time, but I’m not really interested in waiting around to find out if it wants to join the right at that particular party. The best part is that this is more likely in people with no cancer in the blood or lymphatic system. There are other things that make it more likely, but I don’t fit those because I am a unicorn.
Survival rate is the same when both breasts are misbehaving. I guess that’s good.
Then there are recurrence rates related to types of treatment. One option is a lumpectomy. That is where they remove the area of the cancer during surgery and then check the margins to ensure no cancer has moved beyond that area. The margin refers to an area around the tumor that is removed as well. When they remove a tumor, they want to be sure they have removed the entire tumor, so they take additional tissue along with the obvious mass. Hopefully this ‘margin’ shows no signs of cancer, but if it does, the surgeon will need to remove additional tissue.
Recurrence within 10 years (back to breastcancer.org) is around 35%. If you add radiation after, Recurrence is reduced by 46%.
Mastectomy, total removal of the breast, greatly reduces recurrence, especially if the cancer is found in the lymph nodes as well. I am holding out hope that I am not in that category and that it is only misbehaving tatas and they decided not to share with anything else in my body. It can go metastatic, meaning it has moved elsewhere in the body but it is still breast cancer. Let’s assume we caught it early enough that I can avoid that in this case. Because dwelling on ‘what ifs’ in this situation is not healthy. I need to get through this part first. Everything else can wait.