October 2: The Difference

What is the difference between earlier-stage breast cancer and Stage IV?

The biggest difference is the prognosis. Once breast cancer becomes Stage IV, it is considered treatable, although not curable. There is no cure for cancer that has spread beyond the breast tissue. There is no chance of being able to declare themselves cancer-free, or cured, or have an end to treatment.

People in stages 0-III can reach a point of being cancer-free, and if they maintain that long enough, they can cease treatment and resume their previous life with just the occasional scan to remind them of the cancer.

People with Stage IV breast cancer do not have the option of stopping treatment and still surviving. We can and do cease treatment, but only when it is no longer effective, and the side effects diminish the quality of life to the point it is no longer worth it. When we stop treatment, it's usually when we enter hospice.

This is a rest-of-your-life thing, and the average rate of survival for Stage IV breast cancer is only three years. There are people who live ten, even twenty years past their diagnosis, and people who have only a few short months to come to terms with reality, but the average is three years. The number of survivors past the three year mark starts to drop the further away you get.

The difference is, the diagnosis is terminal. It's incurable. There is no 'end' to the treatment or the disease. Cancer is your new reality, for the rest of your life. You do everything you can to prolong it, but the chances are, it won't be anywhere near long enough.

The pink ribbon doesn't fit Stage IV. There are no survivors. There are only the fighters, and the fallen, taken from this world far too soon by the beast. We cannot "beat" this. We can think positive as much as we want, and while it can certainly improve the quality of life, it doesn't actually impact on the final outcome.

We are not survivors.

In the battle against breast cancer, we have received mortal wounds.

The difference is the words Hope and Cure are meaningless to us. And the worst part is, thirty percent of the people who believe in those words are going to find out the hard way just how false and hollow those words ring.