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Along with diagnosing and treating breast cancer, your care team at Fred Hutch Cancer Center helps you understand topics like the outlook for your disease and how to think about statistics such as survival rates. We’re here to answer your questions and make sure you have the level of information you want as you make choices about your care.
Even after your disease is in remission, our breast cancer specialists continue seeing you, typically for about five years. We also provide services for breast cancer survivors who are at least five years out from cancer treatment.
Breast Cancer Care Tailored to You
You and your family are our top priority. At Fred Hutch Cancer Center, we offer comprehensive and compassionate care — personalized to you. You'll have access to the latest treatment options, clinical trials and supportive care services.
Breast Cancer Survival Rates
In cancer care, “survival rate” usually means the percentage of people expected to survive their cancer for at least five years from the time it was diagnosed. Data experts estimate this rate based on information about large groups of people with the same type of cancer. The rate doesn’t include the risk of dying during that five years for some other reason. For breast cancer in women, the relative five-year survival rate overall in the United States is 91.9%, according to the National Cancer Institute.
But the chance of surviving cancer for five years or more can be quite different from person to person. One important reason is the stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis. For breast cancer that’s only in the breast tissue (localized disease, which has not spread to lymph nodes or other parts of the body), the relative five-year survival rate is 100%.
Breast Cancer Prognosis
Even within a subset of people who have breast cancer, like those with regional disease or distant spread, there will be differences in survival. This means it’s impossible to predict the likely lifespan of any one person based on survival rates. If you would like to know more about the outlook for your disease, talk with your Fred Hutch care team. They can tell you more based on your unique situation.
Factors that may affect your prognosis include:
- The type of breast cancer you have
- How large your tumor is
- If cancer has spread outside your breast and if so, where (the stage of the disease)
- How abnormal the cancer cells are (the tumor grade) and how quickly they grow and spread
- If the cancer is hormone receptor positive (HR+)
- If the cancer is HER2 positive (HER2+)
- Which treatments you have and how the cancer responds
- The genetics of your cancer
Continuing Care as a Survivor in Remission
When your breast cancer is in remission and your active treatment ends, it is still important to get follow-up care on a regular basis. At follow-up visits, you will see Fred Hutch breast health experts. They will check your overall health and look for signs that your cancer has come back (signs of recurrence).
Your team will also help with any long-term side effects (which go on after treatment ends) or late effects (which may start after treatment is over).
Women’s Wellness Program
After you complete breast cancer treatment, you are a breast cancer survivor. Many people have the sense of moving into a new stage of life and slowly adjusting to a “new normal.”
When it is time to shift your focus to recovery, we encourage you to come to the Fred Hutch Women’s Wellness Program. This program offers wellness-focused follow-up. It is for patients who are at least five years out from breast or gynecologic cancer treatment. The program is a place for you to get care and services you need under the medical supervision of oncologists you know and trust.
At the Women’s Wellness Program, you can get:
- Routine checkups, tests and scans as well as breast imaging surveillance. (Surveillance is imaging to find second breast cancers in people who have been treated for breast cancer.)
- A wellness plan that covers good nutrition, improved fitness and emotional support.
- Help dealing with ongoing side effects of cancer treatment, such as lymphedema, anxiety or depression.
- Advice about what you can do to keep your cancer from coming back.
The program also sees people who have been to Fred Hutch’s Breast and Ovarian Cancer Prevention Clinic for people at high risk.
Call 206.606.1422 or 206.606.7222 to request an appointment. The Women’s Wellness Program is in the Fred Hutch Wellness Center.
Guide to Breast Cancer Survivorship
Our researchers study not only how to treat breast cancer but also how treatments may affect survivors’ health, such as their risk for heart conditions, down the road. This work helps us refine cancer treatments and give survivors important information about protecting their health for years to come.
Heather Greenlee, ND, PhD, MPH, medical director of the Integrative Medicine Program, was lead author of a study showing that women who get certain common therapies for breast cancer may be at increased risk for heart attack, stroke, heart failure and other heart problems.
“We hope to raise awareness that women who are breast cancer survivors must receive comprehensive, ongoing follow-up care and monitoring for cardiovascular risk, and scientists and clinicians must prioritize research that will reduce this risk.”
― Dr. Heather Greenlee, medical director of Fred Hutch Integrative Medicine Program
If you are wondering what to expect as a breast cancer survivor and how to best take care of yourself, Fred Hutch breast cancer experts have created a guide. It covers topics like eating well, being physically active and managing late or long-term side effects of breast cancer or treatments.