Survival for breast cancer

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• Breast cancer – what to do?
• Is breast cancer treatable?
• Breast implantation after cancer
• A Story of Hope: Beating Advanced Breast Cancer with Modern Therapy
• Which hospitals of Germany provide treatment for breast cancer?
• Organization of Treatment in Germany – Booking Health
• Frequently asked questions of our patients

Here you can find information about innovative treatments for stage 4 breast cancer in Germany, immunotherapy and dendritic cell vaccines.

Breast cancer is a disease that can lead to fatality. However, it can be fatal only if it has not been treated on time. In recent years, doctors have learned how to manage this pathology. There is a high survival rate of patients. Many effective methods of breast cancer treatment have been developed over the years: surgeries, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy. Modern treatment options include groundbreaking immunotherapy approaches, particularly dendritic cell vaccines – a revolutionary discovery by Ralph Steinman that earned the 2011 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Dendritic cell vaccines harness the patient's immune system to fight cancer cells with minimal side effects.

Let's discuss what is most important about breast cancer for women: what to do after the diagnosis is established and what are the chances of curing breast cancer?

Breast cancer – what to do?

Breast cancer does not have to be a sentence. In most cases, the disease is well-treatable. In stages 1-2 it can be cured completely. Even in the 3rd stage, doctors manage to prolong the life of patients for many years. There are many stories where women with a late diagnosis of breast cancer lived for decades after receiving quality treatment.

Nowadays in developed countries, even if breast cancer was detected in stage 3, only a quarter of patients die within the first 5 years after diagnosis. However, the majority live much longer.

Do not assume that if you have breast cancer, it's the end of the world. The main thing is to not hesitate and see a doctor. Here's the worst thing you can do:

• Not consult a doctor after detecting breast cancer symptoms. If there is discharge from the nipple, the mammary gland has deformed or there are ulcerations, it is obvious that you need to go to the doctor as soon as possible. However, some women "hide their heads in the sand." They do not consult the doctor in fear of hearing bad news from him/her. This only causes the disease to progress. As a result, breast cancer is found at a later stage, and the effectiveness of its treatment is reduced.
• To use folk methods as treatment for breast cancer. Some women have been misguided by unreliable sources and start to use herbs for treatment or go to alternative healers. This can last for years. Naturally, the "treatment" does not work. The disease keeps developing, it gives metastases, and in the future, it will be impossible to cure it completely.

If you want to say after several years: "I defeated the breast cancer," you need to start treatment today and not hide from the main medical problems. If your country has a low level of medical care and development, you can go abroad, for example, to Germany. This country provides quality treatment even in advanced forms of cancer. Of course, it would be a bit unrealistic to believe that breast cancer of stage 4 is curable. It would be impossible to treat the disease completely at this point. However, it is very possible to prolong life by 3-5 years by taking medications and radiotherapy courses.

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Is breast cancer treatable?

Breast cancer is curable, especially in the early stages. Medical clinics of developed countries (Germany, USA) have achieved much more success in the treatment for breast cancer. Europe has a better survival rates than developing countries.

Whether the cancer of the breast can be cured depends primarily on the stage when the disease was found. To estimate the prognosis, such an indicator as the relative five-year survival rate is used. These statistics show the chances of curing breast cancer. However, statistics do not take into account death from other causes. For example, if it is indicated that the patients' survival rate is 100%, it means that none of the patients died from breast cancer specifically. However, during this time death could be caused by other conditions that are not taken into account by statistics.

Below is the breast cancer prognosis for different stages. Relative five-year survival of breast cancer by stages (statistics of developed countries) is:

• The 1st stage – 100%
• Stage 2 – 93%
• Stage 3 – 72%
• Stage 4 – 22%

However, from these figures, it is impossible to understand how many patients live with breast cancer later on. This is only an approximate idea of ​​the danger of the disease compared to other types of cancer and of the success achieved in breast cancer treatment in recent years. Moreover, today the chances for recovery from breast cancer are even higher than indicated by these data. After all, statistics take into account people who were treated from 2007 to 2013. More than 10 years have passed since the beginning of treatment in 2007. During this period, new, and more effective methods of therapy have appeared. Surely people who are just starting treatment this year will have significantly better survival rates 5 years later.

Patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer in its initial stages are usually interested in whether it is possible to cure breast cancer completely. However, the latter diagnosis does not give a chance of a full recovery. In advanced forms of the disease, patients are more interested in how long they have to live with breast cancer of the 4th stage. Moreover, they want to get exact figures, such as how many years they have left: for example, 1 year and 3 months.

Naturally, no one will be able to give such an accurate prognosis for breast cancer. Figures of five-year survival rates based on stages are too general. The prognosis depends on many factors. For example, sub-stages are not taken into account here. Even the prognosis for breast cancer of the 2nd degree can be different.

Obviously, patients with stage 2A live longer than patients with stage 2B. In addition, in breast cancer of the 2nd stage, the prognosis depends on:

• Molecular type of cancer (determines the rate of tumor growth and response to treatment)
• Age of the patient (determines the reactivity of the body, its ability to fight with cancer)
• Location of the tumor (it largely influences when and where the tumor will metastasize)
• Residence of the patient (determines the quality of care)

How many people live with breast cancer is an individual question. A doctor can make a prognosis. He/she can even name the chances of surviving breast cancer in percentiles. However, for most patients the reality will be different. Life expectancy at the 4th stage can be 1 year or 7-8 years. Survival in breast cancer highly depends on the quality of treatment. Here are the statistics of global survival rates. This is averaged data for all stages.

Patients who receive treatment have the following survival rates:

• Five-year – 89%
• 10 years – 82%
• 15 years – 77%

As we can see, most women manage to cure breast cancer completely. If there is no recurrence after 15 years, it is obvious that the breast cancer will not recur ever again. However, in the natural course of the disease, if the patient does not receive breast cancer treatment, the chances of surviving breast cancer are zero. The five-year survival rate is only 15%. Clinical data also indicates that breast cancer and survival rate correlations vary significantly based on molecular subtypes, genetic factors, and individual patient characteristics.

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Breast implantation after cancer

For a woman, breast cancer is not only a threat to life. A radical mastectomy is often performed in the course of this disease when the mammary gland is completely removed. After breast cancer surgery, rehabilitation lasts quite a long time. It changes the appearance of women. A woman does not have one breast, which causes psychological complexes and emotional suffering.

Developed countries are increasingly using surgeries, where the breast is not completely removed, but only partially. However, this is possible only in the early stages of the disease, when own tissues provide breast reconstruction after breast cancer treatment. In recent years, oncoplastic surgery has begun to be used. During one surgical intervention the doctor performs manipulations aimed not only at removing the tumor, but also at giving the mammary glands the same shape and size. This prevents further surgeries. If the mammary gland has been removed completely, women can use breast implants. Own tissues of the patient can be used as a substitute for breast implants. The doctor takes the fat tissue from the belly of the woman and forms a breast from them. Sometimes implants are applied additionally, if it is necessary to restore the breast after cancer in such a way that it has a large size.

A Story of Hope: Beating Advanced Breast Cancer with Modern Therapy

While breast cancer can be devastating, modern medicine offers new hope even in advanced cases. Though breast cancer overall survival varies significantly by stage, Magdalena Ivanova's story proves that innovative treatments can make a difference when traditional methods fall short.

After initially battling breast cancer with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy in Bulgaria, Magdalena faced a heartbreaking recurrence years later. The cancer had progressed to stage 4 with bone metastases. Having experienced the harsh side effects of conventional treatments, she knew she needed a different approach.

Her search led her to Germany, where she discovered dendritic cell therapy – a groundbreaking form of immunotherapy that offers several key advantages. Unlike conventional treatments, this therapy is 100% personalized, using the patient's own immune cells to create a targeted vaccine. The process involves collecting the patient's blood, isolating dendritic cells, and engineering them to recognize and fight cancer cells specifically. This precise targeting means minimal impact on healthy tissues, resulting in virtually no side effects.

Magdalena's experience validates these benefits: "The treatment process itself was quite simple and not strenuous at all," she shares. "I could eat whatever I wanted, move freely, and perform all daily activities." The therapy required no physical preparation, and she could maintain her normal daily routine throughout the treatment period.

The success of her treatment exceeded expectations, demonstrating the potential of dendritic cell vaccination for patients with advanced breast cancer. While traditional treatments often are not able to impact the rate of breast cancer survival, her story shows that even after cancer recurrence, dendritic cell vaccination can offer effective treatment while maintaining quality of life. This is particularly significant for patients who have experienced difficult side effects from traditional therapies or are seeking alternatives for advanced-stage cancer.

"No Side Effects": Bulgarian Patient Magdalena Ivanova on Dendritic Cell Therapy

Which hospitals of Germany provide treatment for breast cancer?

Medical data reveals that chances of survival in breast cancer improve dramatically when patients have access to comprehensive treatment facilities and innovative therapies. The highest success rates in breast cancer treatment are demonstrated by several oncological hospitals in Germany:

• University Hospital Tuebingen, Department of Adult and Pediatric Gynecology, Mammology, Obstetrics
• University Hospital Ulm, Department of Obstetrics, Adult and Pediatric Gynecology
• Charite University Hospital Berlin, Department of Adult and Pediatric Gynecology, Mammology
• University Hospital Frankfurt am Main, Department of Adult and Pediatric Gynecology, Obstetrics and Mammology
• University Hospital Halle (Saale), Department of Gynecology and Mammology

The cost of the medical program depends on the procedures included into the preliminary examination, the method of treatment, the hospital and the attending physician, the presence of concomitant diseases. The average cost of treatment in specialized cancer centers in Germany is as follows:

• Diagnostics of breast cancer – on request
• Sectoral resection with flap reconstruction – 13,640 EUR
• Radical mastectomy with removing fascia of the pectoralis major or minor – 14,560 EUR
• Chemotherapy for stage 4 breast cancer – 8,440 EUR
• Radiation therapy for breast cancer – 22,680 EUR
• Proton therapy for breast cancer – 85,920 EUR
• Breast reconstruction after mastectomy with own tissues or implant – 18,970 EUR
• Breast reconstruction after tumor removal with an expander or alloprosthesis – 14,370 EUR
• Plastic reconstruction of the breast with own tissues using the DIEP flap method – 45,260 EUR
• Dendritic cell vaccination for breast cancer – on request
• Oncological rehabilitation – on request

Studies consistently show that the survival chance of breast cancer increases substantially when patients can combine traditional treatments with newer therapeutic approaches. Recent research demonstrates that the percentage of survival of breast cancer has improved significantly over the past decades due to advancements in immunotherapy and the usage of dendritic cell vaccines.

Fighting Breast Cancer Together: Treatment Journeys with Booking Health

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