Breast cancer

Hi Parveen,

Thanks for getting in touch. My name is Rachel and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialists on the Macmillan Support Line.

Welcome to the online community.

I’m sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I can appreciate that this must be a very anxious time for you. After a diagnosis of cancer, it’s very normal to worry about how long you might live after treatment (your prognosis).

There are many factors that can affect your prognosis and all of these things will be considered by your cancer team when deciding what treatment to offer you.

Stage 2 breast cancer is often called early breast cancer. The first treatment for this is surgery to remove the cancer. This may be breast conserving surgery or a mastectomy.

Treatments including radiotherapy and chemotherapy are usually given after surgery to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back.

Because your type of breast cancer is oestrogen receptor positive your cancer doctor is also advising you to take hormonal therapy tablets, which also reduces the risk of your type of breast cancer recurring in future.

As nurses on the support line we can’t give specific information as we don’t have access to medical notes. Generally, treatment for early breast cancer is successful for most people and the risk of the cancer coming back gets less as time goes on.

You may find it helpful at this stage to contact your Breast Cancer Nurse. They are in an ideal position to discuss your diagnosis with you and give further advice on how this may affect you in future.

You might also like to download our booklet about understanding breast cancer to read.

Sometimes giving us a call might be helpful too. We can talk more about your concerns and all the ways we can help.  

Breast Cancer Now has a service called “someone like me” where you can be matched up with someone who is going through a similar experience. Some people find the peer support of others in similar circumstances reassuring to have.

I hope this helps a little

Best wishes

Rachel