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Will I Survive Breast Cancer?

Question: Will I survive breast cancer?

Joseph Sparano, M.D., Montefiore Medical Center

Answer: Well, most women who present with early-stage breast cancer, operable breast cancer, are cured of their disease. However, some patients who have early-stage disease will have a relapse of their disease at some point in the future. And if that occurs, the disease is certainly treatable. For a vast majority of women, however, it's not curable. It's a chronic disease just like any other chronic disease such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and so forth. We can treat those diseases, but we can't cure them.

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