Saturday, October 4, 2014

30 facts in 30 days, Day 4

I'm kinda cheating on today's post, guys - I'm sharing something from Kathi Kolb, aka The Accidental Amazon. I really want to get into the marginalization of folks with mets/Stage IV and the pathetic lack of funding for metastatic breast cancer, but I don't have the energy right now. Ironically, it's because of my own cancer treatment side effects: I'm having a very painful lymphedema flare. So I'm going to give you Kathi's post, and in the days to come I'll talk about mets, and also about lymphedema.

When any of us is first diagnosed with breast cancer, one of our first visceral reactions is fear. And there is a good reason for that. Close to a third of those of us who are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer will develop mets. Even for those of us diagnosed with DCIS, non-invasive breast cancer, up to 10% will develop invasive breast cancer, and that 10% will then be at a 30% risk for developing mets. And yet, a miniscule percentage of research funds goes to finding effective treatment, prevention and cures for metastatic breast cancer.

From Metastatic Breast Cancer by The Accidental Amazon

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