Chemotherapy may not work to shrink or kill advanced and metastasized cancers. In these cases, your cancer can keep growing and spreading during chemotherapy treatment.
Chemotherapy has been the standard treatment for many cancer metastases, while immunotherapy and targeted therapy have become relatively new options.
Chemotherapy does not cure metastatic colorectal cancer, but it can improve symptoms and prolong life.
Although some drugs may shrink metastases along with primary tumors, no existing drugs treat or prevent metastasis directly. Without a targeted approach, metastatic tumors often reemerge.
Metastatic breast cancer may never go away completely. But treatment can control its spread. Cancer may even go into remission at some points. This means you have fewer signs and symptoms of cancer.
About one-third of women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S. live at least 5 years after diagnosis [7]. Some women may live 10 or more years beyond diagnosis [9].
In the past, many people did not live long with metastatic cancer. Even with today's better treatments, recovery is not always possible. But doctors can often treat cancer even if they cannot cure it. A good quality of life is possible for months or even years.
You will often receive chemo in sessions where you have treatment for several weeks, followed by a few weeks off before resuming. Your tumor may start to shrink after one round, but it can also take months. Your oncologist will have a personal discussion with you about how long they think results might take.
For example, the five-year survival rate for metastatic lung cancer is 7%. This means that 7% of people diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer are still alive five years later. Meanwhile, the five-year survival rate of metastatic breast cancer is 28% for women and 22% for men.
Life expectancy for people with metastatic or metastasized lung cancer is low. The 5-year survival rate for small cell lung cancer is 3%, and 8% for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). 25-30% of people with metastatic NSCLC have a life expectancy of under 3 months.
When cancer metastasizes, usually when it is considered stage 4 cancer, it spreads to a different part of the body. Metastasis can impair the function of essential organs and body systems (digestion, lungs, bones, liver, blood vessels), which can cause essential body functions to cease.
Stage IV Breast Cancer Prognosis
There is no known cure for metastatic breast cancer. Once cancer cells have spread to other areas of the body, it is not possible for them all to be removed.
The Challenges of Living with Metastatic Cancer
Cancer that spreads from where it started to a distant part of the body is called metastatic cancer. For many types of cancer, it is also called stage IV (4) cancer. The process by which cancer cells spread to other parts of the body is called metastasis.
Rarely are the terms “cure” and “metastatic cancer” used together. That's because cancer that has spread from where it originated in the body to other organs is responsible for most deaths from the disease.
If correct, metastases grow much faster than primary tumours. However, growth rates and proliferation indices of paired metastases and primary tumours are similar, with metastases growing up to twice as fast as primary tumours1.
With some cancers, chemotherapy can't cure the cancer on its own. But it can help in combination with other types of treatment. For example, many people with breast or bowel cancer have chemotherapy after surgery to help lower the risk of the cancer coming back.
This phenomenon, called pseudoprogression, actually means cancer is may be responding to treatment. In some cases, however, it's possible that the tumor growth may be interpreted as a sign that treatment isn't working, and the care team may be tempted to stop treatment early.
You might notice an improvement in cancer symptoms, such as less pain, reduced lymph node swelling, and improved energy levels. If you use topical chemotherapy on skin lesions, the area might feel irritated and look red and swollen for the first few weeks. These are all signs that chemotherapy is working.
Many women with metastatic breast cancer will live only a handful of years, says Hendershott. But about one-third will live at least five years after their diagnosis. And “there are people who have been living with stage IV breast cancer for more than 15 years,” she says.
Lung and bronchial cancer causes more deaths in the U.S. than any other type of cancer in both men and women. Although survival rates have increased over the years due to improved treatments, the outlook is still bleak. The five-year survival rate is only 22%.
The 5-year relative survival rate for women with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S. is 30%. The 5-year survival rate for men with metastatic breast cancer is 19%. The survival rates for metastatic breast cancer vary based on several factors.
Indeed, invasion of nearby tissue and seeding at distant sites to form metastases remains a central feature of cancer malignancy (Fig. 1). After all, metastasis constitutes the primary cause of death for >90% of patients with cancer.
Advanced cancer is cancer that is unlikely to be cured or controlled with treatment. This is also called end-stage cancer or terminal cancer. (Sometimes terminal cancer is called metastatic cancer, but they aren't always the same thing. To learn more, see Metastatic Cancer: When Cancer Spreads.)
Stage 4 is the most severe stage of cancer, with the highest risk of mortality. However, many factors affect a person's life expectancy, including the type of cancer. For prostate cancer, for instance, the 5-year life expectancy is 32%, but for pancreatic cancer it is 3%.