Can breast cancer be a chronic disease?

Can breast cancer be a chronic disease?

Richard E. Gould (Hematologist/Oncologist, Cedars-Sinai Outpatient Cancer Center) gives expert video advice on: What are the most common types of breast cancer?; What causes breast cancer?; Is breast cancer fatal? and more...

Absolutely, in some women breast cancer can definitely be a chronic disease. Once breast cancer spreads beyond the breast and the axilla and its metastatic we're not able to cure it. Our goals of therapy at that point are to help women live longer; to live longer feeling well, living their lives and involved in their lives. That becomes our goal of therapy. So, we attempt to turn breast cancer into a chronic condition, so that women can be out there living their lives. It is something that has to be monitored and treated like just diabetes and just like high blood pressure. For women with bone only metastatic breast cancer, they can live many, many years, and some women live upwards of ten years with metastatic breast cancer. That is not the typical course of breast cancer, but that can happen and we are able to provide that life expectancy for some women. So, breast cancer can be a chronic disease for some individuals.