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Are We Turning Breast Cancer Into a Chronic Disease?

Are We Turning Breast Cancer Into a Chronic Disease? (1:09)

Modern treatment can turn late stage breast cancer into more of a chronic disease, says Elisa Port, MD, a surgeon at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. In this video, Dr. Port explains why earlier stages of breast cancer are instead considered curable.

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I actually wouldn't say that at all I think that for some women diagnosed with very late stage breast cancer, what we call stage four disease where the disease has not only, is not only in the breast but is already spread to the lymph nodes beyond that to other organs in the body. That is a situation which is not considered necessarily curable or you can make it go away permanently, but that's treatable, and yes women can live into this day and age they can and potentially live a long life, and have that be sort of a chronic disease.

Really for women with stage zero, stage one, stage two and even stage three breast cancer, we think of it as potentially curable. Where it does not have to be a chronic disease its treated and it becomes history.