A related discussion,
breastcancerspreadtopancreas was started.
This is of interest to me because I had a mastectomy last year (April 2002) and my year scan this spring and xrays etc. were all clear, but I was found with an enlarged pancreas. Nothing was seen wrong with my pancreas, except it was larger than last year. No mass was seen...it looked paerectly normal except the body was quite enlarged. I will have another ST scan in October.
have a silly question. had mastectomy 1995 and recent mets to spine. Do I still need frequent mammography as the cancer is being treated and if it spread to other breast would be treated anyway? What about PAP I had hysterectomy many years ago no cervix left. Thanks.
cancer is "named" by the organ from which it originates. Breast cancer is cancer that formed in the breast; if it spreads, whether to bone, lung, or elsewhere, it's still breast cancer. When a cancer spreads, in most cases it is not curable; but it often can be held in check for a very long time -- many years is a possibility. So, if it is indeed the case that the cancer that was found in her pancreas is the breast cancer she had before, it's breast cancer, not pancreatic cancer. And, having spread from her breast, the goal of treatment would generally be to contain it, arrest it, slow it down -- but to expect cure is very unlikely.
Dear Edhusband: Part of the answer to your question lies in the definition of the word "cure." Cure means that all the disease is gone and there is little to no concern about it coming back. Remission is a word that is more comfortable to use. Remission means that all signs of active cancer are gone. There is always an understanding that there is a possibility that the disease can come back.
Metastatic breast cancer means that the cancer has spread outside the organ of origin and that it is no longer localized. Once cancer has spread, it is more difficult to treat in most cases. In other words, the probability of making all the cancer go away is lower than if the cancer had not spread. This means that the focus is on shrinking the cancer as much as possible to relieve symptoms and extend life. Of course, optimally, it would be good if all the cancer went away.
In your wifes case, in the hierarchy of treatment success probabilities, the best case scenario would be for the cancer not to have spread at all. The fact that the cancer in her pancreas is from the breast actually may make treatment a little easier than if this were a new second cancer of the pancreas. Breast cancer responds better to chemotherapy than does pancreas cancer.