Life After Breast Cancer: What to Expect and How to Adjust

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When you’re in the thick of breast cancer treatment, you may long for the day treatment ends and you get the all clear. But for many breast cancer survivors, life after breast cancer can bring a mix of physical and emotional challenges.

It takes time to recover and feel like yourself again. You may ask yourself: Can I have a normal life after breast cancer?

How breast cancer affects your daily life going forward depends on your cancer type, stage, and treatment. Knowing what to expect can help you prepare for what lies ahead.

Who Is a Breast Cancer Survivor?

There are more than 4 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). You’re a breast cancer survivor from the time of diagnosis until the end of your life, even if you’re in active treatment. That’s the National Cancer Institute (NCI) definition.

Are There Concerns After Breast Cancer Treatment?

Common concerns after you finish breast cancer treatment can include:

• Cancer recurrence — Breast cancer coming back.
• Long-term health issues — Cancer treatment can cause lymphedema and heart problems months or even years later.
• Mental health issues — Compared to women with no history of cancer, breast cancer survivors face an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide. They also face problems with thinking and focus, often caused by chemotherapy, and sexual health problems.
• Post-mastectomy challenges — Including body image issues after this surgery to remove one or both breasts.
• Pregnancy and fertility problems — Rarely, breast cancer affects women under the age of 45. For premenopausal women, breast cancer treatment can impact their ability to get pregnant and maintain a pregnancy.

What to Expect: The Next Five Years

Most oncologists (cancer doctors) oversee your survivorship care for at least five years. In the first year, they’ll follow you closely. Office exams will often take place every few months.

During these five years, you may see your oncologist, breast surgeon, and/or radiologist at different times. After that, your primary care doctor and other needed specialists will provide follow-up care.

Women who had a lumpectomy or partial mastectomy often have mammograms every six months during the first year. After that, you’ll need a yearly mammogram. If you had a mastectomy, you’ll need a mammogram on your remaining breast.

What is a survivorship care plan, or SCP?

An SCP serves as a roadmap for follow-up care. You can often find your SCP in your electronic medical record. If you don’t have one, ask your doctor for one.

Your SCP may include:

• List of late- or long-term treatment side effects — This includes what to watch for and when you should contact your doctor.
• Ongoing treatment needed — Women with hormone-sensitive cancer may need hormone therapy to keep the cancer from coming back.
• Recommended lifestyle changes — These can help you achieve better health and may reduce your risk of cancer recurrence.
• Schedule of clinical exams and tests you may need — This includes screening tests for other types of cancer and tests to look for long-term health effects. Certain hormone therapies can increase your risk of uterine cancer or osteoporosis. You may also need routine bone density testing and yearly pelvic exams.
• Screening tests to find any new primary cancer early — Your doctor may also recommend a routine breast MRI and/or breast ultrasound.

Adjusting to Life After Breast Cancer

Though life may feel uncertain after treatment ends, you don’t have to go it alone or suffer in silence. Consider the following options to help get you through it.

Enroll in a breast cancer survivors program

Breast cancer survivor programs offer and coordinate care services, including:

• Counseling, including nutritional, spiritual, and financial advice.
• Exercise programs.
• Home care services.
• Mental, behavioral, and cognitive health therapy.
• Physical therapy.
• Referrals to specialty health care providers.
• Sexual and reproductive health care and counseling.
• Social services.
• Support groups.

Get mental health help

Depression can impact your quality of life as well as how you take care of your health. If you have symptoms of depression for two or more weeks, talk to your doctor.

You don’t need a depression diagnosis to benefit from mental health support. Different talk therapies can help you learn to manage your emotions and stress.

Join support programs

Support groups connect you with people who understand what you’re going through, so you feel less alone. You can also share wellness tips. Some to consider include:

• American Cancer Society’s Cancer Survivors Network.
• National Breast Cancer Foundation Support Group.
• Living Beyond Breast Cancer.
• Pink Ribbon Good.

Try complementary approaches

These therapies outside of mainstream medicine don’t prevent or cure cancer. But in women with breast cancer, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health finds the following may help ease cancer symptoms and treatment side effects:

• Acupuncture — May help relieve joint pain from taking aromatase inhibitors (AIs). You may need an AI if you have hormone-sensitive breast cancer to reduce your risk of cancer recurrence.
• Mindfulness-based practices — Can significantly reduce anxiety, depression, fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance, and psychological distress.
• Yoga — Significant benefits include improvement in anxiety, depression, fatigue, stress, nausea/vomiting, sleep quality, quality of life, and wound healing.

What Is The Life Expectancy After Breast Cancer?

It’s common to wonder how long you can expect to live. Often, people have questions without easy answers, such as:

• Can you live for 30 years after cancer?
• What is the 20-year survival rate for breast cancer?

Breast cancer survival rates

Breast cancer survival rates are estimates based on past treatment outcomes for a large group of people. They can’t predict exactly how long each person will live. They also don’t include the risk of dying from other causes.

Survival statistics keep improving. Finding cancer early through screening mammograms and better treatments means more women are surviving breast cancer than ever before.

Death rates from breast cancer have continued to drop since 1989, down by 44% through 2022, according to the ACS. Because rates can change over time, doctors often use five-year relative survival rates.

For female breast cancer, the overall five-year relative survival rate is 91.7%, according to the NCI. This means nearly 92% of females with breast cancer will live at least five years after diagnosis. More than 85% are still alive 10 years after diagnosis.

Your race and ethnicity can also impact your survival rate. Black women face the highest breast cancer death rate, and Hispanic women also have higher breast cancer death rates than White women.

Ask your doctor to go over what survival rates mean for you.