The overall average of five-year survival rate for women who contract breast cancer is around 86% for those whose disease has not metastasized. That means, 86% of the women who contract it survive for at least five years. But even that fairly high number is just an overall average. The numbers are even better for some categories. Those numbers depend on the stage at which the cancer is detected and treated.

Just like other forms of cancer, individuals develop breast cancer in stages. Each stage is labeled with both a letter and a number. The cancer types are labeled based on a classification system that has become a cancer standard. These labels are (T, N, and MO and are scaled from 0-IV). A cancer that has been deemed A T is indicative of the cancers size, the N means that the cancer has spread to the individual's lymph nodes and M means distant metastasis. Metastasis means that a tumor is spreading from its primary location to secondary locations throughout the body forming the same tumor types in other locations.

Tumors that are labeled as TX are not able to be assessed. T0 means that no evidence of cancer exists. Tis means that the person in question has a cancer that could be one of three different cancer types: DCIS (ductal carcinoma situ), LCIS (lobular carcinoma in situ) or even Paget's disease. Paget's disease is an extremely rare cancer in which the nipple and/or areola itself is actually cancerous.

Stage 0 cancers are ones that have been detected in the earliest possible stage. If a cancer is in Stage I that is indicative that the cancer is smaller than 2cm in size and hasn't yet begun to spread. A cancer in Stage II indicates that the cancer has grown to 2-5cm in diameter and tumors in Stage III are larger than 5cm. When an individual has a tumor that is stage IV then typically it has attached itself to the chest wall and spread to the lymph nodes of the individual.

Because of the many technological advances for both diagnosis and treatment techniques people are better able to detect their cancer and eliminate it during its earliest stages.

For those women and men treated in Stage 0 or I the average five year survival rates are roughly 100%. Yes, men get breast cancer too, albeit at about 1/133 the rate of women. Even Stage II sufferers have a survival rate between 81%-92%. It isn't until Stage III that the rate dips to 67%. For Stage IV it is approximately 20%.

Beating the cancer odds is always possible. Even people who are in the later cancer stages are capable of surviving for longer periods of time than they might have expected, sometimes even more than seven years. Due to the technological advances that have occurred in both diagnostic and treatment methods the odds for individuals are improving significantly.

One new diagnostic technique, for example, is QM-MSP (quantitative multiplex methylation-specific PCR). Discovered in 2001, it is a chemical test that uses fluid from the breast. By analyzing chemical tags on certain genes, it's possible to detect cancer clumps as small as 50 cells with 86% reliability. As it and other innovative methods move into the mainstream, 'early' detection becomes 'earliest possible' detection. That greatly improves the odds of successful treatment.

Treatments are becoming better. Hormone therapy, molecule specific drugs, and targeted radiation are all now available. These amazing methods are capable of saving the lives of many individuals.

Breast cancer is never pleasant. It will always be a serious condition. Breast cancer doesn't really have to be life threatening or even something that permanently scars; breast cancer doesn't necessarily kill people any longer.