stage iv breast cancer

 Have been searching and searching these vaccines we have been hearing about on the news.  Come to find out there has been several clinical trials on vaccines back since 2006.  Just found a girl on Breast Cancer . org forum that flew to St. Louis were I live to be in a clinical trial at Washington University for metastic breast cancer.  She said she is NED now.  She had the vaccine and chemo Arimidex.  Don't you think if she was cleared up in 6 months like that the FDA would have approved these treatments right away.  I sure don't understand the FDA.

My best friend-who is really a second Mom to me has had stage IV breast cancer for a few years. She had breast cancer for probably 11 years. She was NED for a few years---but has had so many medical mistakes on her journey. The last doctor told her after 2-3 years she was now at stage iv cancer and my friend said to her "I was stage iv when I became you patient about 3 years ago" and the doctor told her she was lying-she told the doctor to check the paperwork from the last doctor showing stage iv. So basically for the 2-3 years we feel this doctor did not treat or monitor her in any way that a state iv patient should have been monitored. One thing we learned is to ask questions, second guess everything and do your own research along with get a copy of every test and research what it says. Breastcancer.org is a wonderful site, I have learned alot from them.

Now my friend's cancer is back in many places and in the brain. She just got done with whole brain radiation this week. I talk to her a few times a day-she lives in another state. She sounds wonderful and she feels wonderful. From seeing her you would never know she is sick. Her positive attitude has helped her with her illness. She refuses to be taken in with the number game. Some of her doctors told her to get her affairs in order about 8 years ago-after that she went into NED. Her radiologist told her there is no answer on why she is alive because her cancer was so bad. So we just take it one day at a time. Heck, you can get hit by a bus on the street too--cancer does not have to be the reason a person dies.
Even though my friend has accepted her illness she will not let it take over her life. When my mother had cancer she tried to fight it but in her journals she wrote that she knew the worst would happen. Her cancer was caught very late and I felt she didn't have the chance to fight.
Nobody has a answer that can tell you when to expect the worse. My friend worked with a lady that had a horrible brain tumor and was told she would die-that they could not help her. She found a doctor who could and she is still alive 12 years later working at a hospital helping others.

great stories.