Experts say recurrence of breast cancer after 20 years is rare

EXPERTS say the recurrence of breast cancer 20 years after initial diagnosis is rare. This is how Olivia Newton-John can treat it for the second time.

(Olivia Newton-John’s new cancer diagnosis is rare. Picture: AFP

CANCER experts say the recurrence of breast cancer 20 years after initial diagnosis is quite rare.

It is most common for breast cancer to return within the first five years after diagnosis says Cancer Council chief Professor Sanchia Aranda.

Women who have stage 1 breast cancer have a 98 per cent chance of surviving five years after diagnosis.

However women with stage 2 cancer which involves either large tumours or tumours that have spread to the lymph nodes there is a 15 per cent chance the cancer will return within five years of the initial diagnosis.

Olivia Newton-John announced today she has breast cancer again, 20 years after beating it.

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Olivia Newton-John’s new cancer diagnosis is rare. Picture: AFP

“It is uncommon but not unknown for secondary cancer to occur 20 years later,” she says.

Doctors are required to officially report an initial diagnosis of cancer but they do not have to officially record cases where it recurs so there is no good data Professor Aranda says.

“The bone, the liver, the brain and the lungs are the most common places it spreads to,” she says.

One in four people who experience a recurrence of their breast cancer will still be alive five years after diagnosis and some survive ten years, she said.

“People are starting to live longer after diagnosis,” she said.

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Cancer Council chief Professor Sanchia Aranda. Picture: News Corp

Chemotherapy is likely to be used and radiotherapy will be used to control pain.

Twenty years ago the expensive treatment Herceptin was not available so if a woman had HER2 positive breast cancer it is possible that could be used, she said.