Metastatic breast cancer

Hi RuthyJ 

I am sorry you have been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Welcome to our breast cancer forum. I also have metastatic breast cancer but mine is triple negative so I don’t have experience of your drug combination as they wouldn’t benefit me. CDK4/6 inhibitors like ribociclib have made a huge difference in the management of hormonal breast cancers that have spread, and I think most people live well with the drug combination you have been offered. Hopefully some others with this drug combination will come along and comment shortly. 

You might like to join our Secondary breast cancer forum  too. It’s a quieter forum than this one but we are all in the same boat. A busier forum used by people with all sorts of metastatic cancers is the Living with incurable cancer forum - patients only . Many people on there are living good lives.

I would say try to take this day by day whilst you settle into what it all means. It does make sense to make sure practical matters like wills and power of attorney are sorted, but you will hopefully live a long time on your drugs. I decided I would never ask for a prognosis. I don’t think they can give a view with much accuracy until someone is obviously late in the journey, and I don’t think it’s helpful to live with a ‘use by’ date over your head. Beware of prognosis data you might find via a search engine, a lot of it is out of date as treatments have changed. CDK4/6 inhibitors have really changed the landscape for your cancer. I attended a conference on secondary cancer last year where one of the speakers said it has moved this for many people into the realm of living with a chronic disease that has to be managed, I hope that’s true for you. 

Hi thank you so much for your reply! Its really helpful, I did ask for a prognosis and wished I hadn't! But thinking more positive now...I just want to get on with my treatment now as all the waiting for appointments etc. Has been very stressful! Thanks once again and hope you get on ok xx