Question by Sun: What is my prognosis for stage 3b cervical cancer?
I have been diagnosed with stage 3b cervical cancer after a year and a half of trying to find out whats wrong. I am doing 7 1/2 weeks of radiation treatments 5 days a week and one chemo treatment per week for 5 weeks. I know the number of rotations of treatments will vary this as well. So Can you please tell me 1. my prognosis 2. how my prognosis improves if responding to treatments based on number of cycles that I do.
Best answer:
Answer by Jared
A patient’s prognosis for cervical cancer depends on the stage of the cancer, the type of cervical cancer, and the size of the tumor.
In general, 71% of women with invasive cervical cancer survive for 5 years or more. African-American women tend to have poorer 5-year survival rates than Caucasian women, although survival rates have significantly increased in African-American women in recent years.
About half of cervical cancer cases are diagnosed when the cancer is confined to the cervix (localized; Stage I). About 35% of cases are diagnosed after the cancer has spread to adjacent areas or lymph nodes (regional; Stage II/III), and about 10% of cases are diagnosed when the cancer has already spread to distant regions (metastasized; Stage IV).
Depending on the stage and spread of cancer, 5-year survival rates are:
92% for localized cervical cancer
58% for regional cancer
17% for metastasized cancer
Those figures are from a 2010 PD Ref.
Now there isn’t an exact science that you seem to insinuate,.. oncology prognosis is far from an exact science and never will be something that is even close to exact.
That said —
At Stage 3b, your odd of 5 year survival are about, roughly, 50/50.
With response to radiation your odds will increase between 5-25%.
With CONTINUOUS response to chemotherapy, each cycle would raise your prognosis between 5-7% statistically.
However, there are diminishing returns,.. you don’t do chemo indefinitely,.. so if after say, 7 treatments,.. your prognosis doesn’t go from 50% to 94% . Would be nice,.. instead at this point your prognosis will shift to either a remissive state,.. close to 100% for 5 years, to be re-evaluated every 3 months, then 6 months, then at minimum yearly from then on.. OR, it will remain at about 50-60%, depending on response curve.
MOST will respond to radiation due to the process, and how it works. Tumors shrink, most of the time, with radiation – but it is radiation, and your immune system needs to play an active role here in the long term.. so it can only be used so much.
Chemo has come a long way, but it still has its side effects, and is chemical therapy, it , by the broad approach, destroys your physical health and your body can only take so much of it before it becomes an issue of diminishing returns with the chemo vs living X amount of time without chemo but with your physical health in tact. I see this ‘rock and hard place’ scenario often.. where a patient has to choose to live the remaining 6months to 3-5 years of their lives either with rotation of chemotherapy which keeps the aggressiveness of the tumors lower, but doesn’t eliminate them — while their physical health is drastically compromised, thus their quality of life is very low. Verse,.. eliminating the treatment, and their health will restore itself quickly and their quality of life dramatically increases but at the cost of the tumors becoming larger and eventually taking their lives.
You aren’t at that point, of course — but thrown in to point out the diminishing returns of excessively long chemo.
Ideally, in your case, you will respond to the radiation — then you will respond VERY well to the chemo , very early — and after 2-3 treatments the tumor(s) will not only cease to grow, but will drastically shrink.. and the prognosis look as if the chemo will turn your tumors into an INACTIVE state. Remission is often an *inactive cancer* which leaves one with some size of tumor(s) left in the body , however they have ceased to be ‘alive’.. thus not dividing any longer, and not causing further problem.
Cervical cancer used to be a VERY high mortality rate even as recent as the late 70′s early 80′s — Near 90 percent over long term (5 years).
The odds are now in your favor.. I wish you all the best with the best minds and care of your doctors and luck in your body responding and holding up to the treatment at hand.
Your attitude does play a major role despite what science and some doctors suggest. Patients with the best outlooks and positive mental attitude AND a good support system have the best prognosis rates as opposed to those who are relatively isolated and have depressive, negative attitudes without hope.
Take care,
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Can you get genital warts or cervical cancer, a common wart on your hand?
Jannet Question : Can you get genital warts or cervical cancer, a common wart on your hand
My boyfriend has a wart on a finger, and he pointed to in the past. Is it possible for me to get genital warts, cervical cancer or other type of STD from this? I heard that common warts are a different strain of HPV, not the kind MST, so I’m not scared much, but I’m just making sure. Best answer:
Response by Bruce
Yes, they are different.
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