"which made me at a higher than expected risk of recurrence. I also experienced a life-threatening bout of neutropenic fever near the end of treatment, so suffice it to say I was none too certain that I would make it to my 10-year mark without any further adventures in Cancerland...or, as everyone who has ever had cancer intimately understands, that I would make it here at all."
"Much cancer research approaches 10-year survival like the end of a story, but it's also a beginning. Long-term breast cancer survivors can face recurrence for up to 32 years...but most won't. Life after cancer can be complex and difficult, but can also yield unexpected richness and beauty. On the 10-year anniversary of survivorship, it's worth reflecting on milestones, gratitude, and growth."
"After the ten-year mark, easy information about cancer recurrence tends to fall off the end of a flat earth-survival statistics are widely available for the first decade after diagnosis, but once a survivor has hit a decade without recurrence, we are mainly just considered success stories. For estrogen-and-progesterone positive breast cancer survivors like myself, we are usually taken off the adjuvant hormone therapy that has been our standard of care;"
A breast cancer diagnosis prompted treatment that revealed two cancer types, additional risk factors from tests like Oncotype DX, and a life-threatening neutropenic fever. Many survivors face uncertainty about long-term recurrence risk even after a decade without disease. Estrogen- and progesterone-positive survivors are often taken off adjuvant hormone therapy and shifted to less frequent oncology follow-up, creating a sense of medical closure despite lingering risk. Recent research has begun examining outcomes beyond ten years, noting that recurrence can occur decades later while most survivors remain disease-free. The ten-year milestone invites reflection on gratitude, milestones, and personal growth after cancer.
Read at Psychology Today
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