HI all, Here is the link to BCNA's State of the nation report which will be presented to government at Parliament House tonight. This report highlights the experiences of over 15000 women and men aro...
Published 8 years ago
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@melclarity I'm sorry I know this upsets you but I do believe that the exercise message is very important.
When we are speaking about the risk of recurrence we are speaking about the population risk - that is what happens to a group of 100, or 1000, or 1 million people. Currently we can't predict whether an individual will have a recurrence or not. We are getting closer but we aren't there yet.
For an individual you either have a recurrence or you don't. There is no inbetween - it's not like you can get a percentage of a tumour!?
But for a group there is a percentage risk because you can measure how many per hundred have a recurrence.
If you have a group of 100 people with breast cancer who exercise and a group of 100 people with similar cancers who don't exercise there will be less people in the exercise group who have a recurrence - that has been proven.
This means that SOME people in the group will have avoided a recurrence by exercising. It does not mean that if you exercise you won't have a recurrence because sadly there will still be people in the exercise group who have a recurrence - as you have experienced.
This same principle applies to all our adjuvant treatments - radiation, chemo, hormone therapy - it has been proven that these treatments will reduce the risk of recurrence but none of them eliminate it completely. Otherwise, as you say, there would be no recurrences.
I understand that for you - your recurrence was 100% - it happened to you and nothing you did (and I know that you did everything you could) stopped it. But in a group of 100 people like yourself - some of them would not have had a recurrence and that is why we say that the risk is reduced.
I do wish it could be more more clear so that people like yourself don't feel that they are being blamed.
When we are speaking about the risk of recurrence we are speaking about the population risk - that is what happens to a group of 100, or 1000, or 1 million people. Currently we can't predict whether an individual will have a recurrence or not. We are getting closer but we aren't there yet.
For an individual you either have a recurrence or you don't. There is no inbetween - it's not like you can get a percentage of a tumour!?
But for a group there is a percentage risk because you can measure how many per hundred have a recurrence.
If you have a group of 100 people with breast cancer who exercise and a group of 100 people with similar cancers who don't exercise there will be less people in the exercise group who have a recurrence - that has been proven.
This means that SOME people in the group will have avoided a recurrence by exercising. It does not mean that if you exercise you won't have a recurrence because sadly there will still be people in the exercise group who have a recurrence - as you have experienced.
This same principle applies to all our adjuvant treatments - radiation, chemo, hormone therapy - it has been proven that these treatments will reduce the risk of recurrence but none of them eliminate it completely. Otherwise, as you say, there would be no recurrences.
I understand that for you - your recurrence was 100% - it happened to you and nothing you did (and I know that you did everything you could) stopped it. But in a group of 100 people like yourself - some of them would not have had a recurrence and that is why we say that the risk is reduced.
I do wish it could be more more clear so that people like yourself don't feel that they are being blamed.
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