Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 10/30/2011

Question
hi doc! surviving my breast cancer for 11 years now at 57 years of age. my first was a stage 1, invasive lobular carcinoma on the right breast, T1N0M0 score. had lumpectomy and 28 radiation therapy. my second primary occurred 5 years ago. it was stage 1, invasive ductal carcinoma on my left breast, T1N0M0 again. this time, i had no more insurance and could not afford anymore treatment. after my second lumpectomy, i just tried my best to lower my cholesterol to keep my estrogen low.

how much is the percentage that i am going to have a recurrence? right now, i am just taking curcumin together with my low fat diet to keep my cancer at bay. desperately seeking your counsel.

susan

Answer
Oh, this was hard! Risk evaluation is easy based on statistics when dealing with large populations but rather impossible when dealing with a single individual (too many individual variations, when you deal with many people they more or less even out, not so with just one person). I can not give you an exact percentage of your risk increase. Personally I would hate not to give radiation therapy after a lumpectomy. But based on older materials I would say that your chance of surviving this is better than 50%. With radiation it would at least be somewhat better. But I can not give you an exact percentage. That is as far as I can come. Good luck!



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