Survival rates are used by medical doctors or health professionals as the traditional way of deliberating a person’s outlook or prognosis. In some cases, cancer patients would like to have relevant information about survival statistics of other people who also underwent similar cancer treatment while others may not demand the statistics.

Observed survival rate (which is the observation of a cancer patient over a 5-year period, or 5-year survival rate), denotes the percentage of cancer patients who live for no less than five years after being diagnosed with cancer. Needless to say, many people diagnosed with can live longer than five years with several people getting cured completely.

Survival rates are regularly based on previous results of a large number of individuals who had metastatic cancer, even though doctors cannot accurately predict what will happen in any person’s case. Many factors may contribute to a cancer patient’s prognosis such as the type of metastatic cancer, its primary location or where it originated from, the age of the patient as well as the kind of treatment received. For instance, metastatic cancer that occurs in the extremities (i.e. the arms and the legs) usually result in a better outcome compared to cancer found in other regions of the body. It has also been observed that cancer patients who are advanced in age come out worse compared to younger people.

When looking at metastatic cancer survival rates, one must understand that the stage of cancer never changes at the end of the day, even as cancer continues to grow. Cancer, whether metastatic in nature or it recurs is still referred to by the stage it was categorized when it was first discovered and diagnosed. The only difference is that additional information that explains the current degree or magnitude of the cancer is made available.

What makes metastatic cancer survival rate unpredictable is the fact the metastatic cancer is usually harder to treat than primary cancer. Treatments for metastatic cancer are carried out to prolong the survival of the cancer patient as much as possible as well as to maintain or improve the quality of life. Such treatments reduce the metastases of cancer, even though it doesn’t go away completely. Supportive therapies are also administered to thwart the complications that occur as a result of metastatic cancer.

For more information about metastatic cancer survival rates, as well as how to get involved in the clinical research studies conducted by health professionals and medical doctors, visit mypecomastudy.com