Welcome to day three of What Not to Say to a person with Metastatic Breast Cancer. As I've said, this is not to guilt anyone who's said these things with good intentions, but to educate. Even I was saying them to myself back when I still had the pink blinders on."Why can't they just do surgery?"
It seems to boggle people when they find out I've not had a mastectomy and am not planning to do so. Wouldn't cutting the cancer out get rid of the cancer? Not in the case of Stage IV. The cancer is already spreading through the circulatory and lymphatic systems, and just because it doesn't show up anywhere else only means that it's not big enough there yet to detect. Cutting out bits and parts of the body as the cancer rears its head wouldn't actually accomplish anything in curing the cancer or getting it under control, but instead put the body through unnecessary additional strain and raise the risks of infection or organ failure. There are studies that indicate removing the primary mass can actually help trigger the growth of additional metastasis, and overall does nothing to improve the chances of survival.
"How can it be breast cancer if it's in your liver/lungs/bone/brain/etc?"
This is what Stage IV is. The breast cancer cells break away from the main tumor and are dispersed through the body, looking for somewhere else to take root. The four most common sites for breast cancer metastasis are the brain, the bones, the lungs, and the liver. It is not limited to those four places, but those are by far the most common, and it's likewise not unusual to have metastasis in more than one location. Prognosis can depend on where the cancer takes root; bone metastasis is thought to be the easiest to bring to a stable state for a longer stretch of time, but it comes with it the side effect of weakened bones and an increased risk for fractures and joint replacement surgeries.
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Part One
Part Two
Part Four
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