how bad is stage 3 breast cancer?!
Question: How bad is stage 3 breast cancer?
Answers:
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Stage III is also called locally advanced cancer. In this stage, the tumor in the breast is large (more than 2 inches across) and the cancer has spread to the underarm lymph nodes; or the cancer is extensive in the underarm lymph nodes; or the cancer has spread to lymph nodes near the breastbone or to other tissues near the breast.
Patients with stage III breast cancer usually have both local treatment to remove or destroy the cancer in the breast and systemic treatment to stop the disease from spreading. The local treatment may be surgery and/or radiation therapy to the breast and underarm. The systemic treatment may be chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or both. Systemic therapy may be given before local therapy to shrink the tumor or afterward to prevent the disease from recurring in the breast or elsewhere.
It is further classified as-
Stage IIIB: T4, N0-2, M0: The tumor grown into the chest wall or skin and may have spread to no lymph nodes or as many as 9 axillary nodes. It may or may not have spread to internal mammary nodes. The cancer hasn't spread to distant sites.
Stage IIIC: T0-4, N3, M0: The tumor is any size, has spread to 10 or more nodes in the axilla or to 1 or more lymph nodes under the clavicle (infraclavicular) or above the clavicle (supraclavicular) or to internal mammary lymph nodes, which are enlarged because of the cancer. All of these are on the same side as the breast cancer. The cancer hasn't spread to distant sites.
WW
Worse than stage 2, better than stage 4.
Generally surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy will be used.
Often (depending on biopsy results) this will be followed by 5 - 10 years of daily medication t control hormones.
It is survivable and there are several regular posters on this forum who have survived.
Treated for stage 3 breast cacner, over 6 years ago.
I had a stage 3, grade 3 b.c. and 3 years out, I am still fine. I had to have every treatment there is: lumpectomy, chemo, mastectomy, radiation, and hormone therapy. It took just about 1 year (had several infections that delayed things), but I'm ok now. It was crap at the time, but thinking back, I don't really remember much of it.