Breast Cancer Prognosis

Of all the women diagnosed with breast cancer, 90% will be alive five years after diagnosis¹. This is due to major achievements made in breast cancer over the last 40 years:

• Awareness of breast cancer has increased dramatically

• Diagnosis, management and treatment of breast cancer have improved

Prognostic factors provide information about a patient’s outcome and overall survival regardless of therapy and predictive factors aim to predict the response of a patient to a specific therapeutic intervention, allowing doctors to decide on the most appropriate and efficient treatment option for each patient. Common prognostic and predictive factors include the histological subtype (e.g. ductal or lobular carcinomas), stage and grade, and receptor status (such as hormone receptor status and HER2 (ErbB2) status) of the cancer.

If you want to find out more about breast cancer, please launch the full animated infographic.

        1. US National Cancer Institute, Cancer Advances in Focus. [Online] Available at: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancer-advances-in-focus/breast [Last accessed: November 2011]