My kind of Tumour

I'm going to post what I know about my tumour here and the reality as I know it of my situation. This will not be an easy read so skip it or don't say I didn't warn you.

My tumour is staged as follows: T2 N1 M0. It was a stage IIB growth when it was removed. I had this weird looking bunch of letters/numbers written down for me on a post it by the surgeon who did my operation on the date that I went in to have my drains and clips removed back in August. It has done nothing more than collect dust in the folder labeled "Cancer Medical Info" in my filing cabinet. It took until now for me to look that up and find out more. I didn't want to, and I'm still not sure if doing that was the right thing for me to do, but one day, sitting at home by myself, I withdrew that post it and my laptop and went to work. Before I paste what I found here, these stats really mean nothing. I will tell you what I've found as far as survival rate, but it doesn't mean anything either. I've lived my life with the thinking that if even 1% of anything is possible, then I feel that I can be that 1%. That is applied to the way I work and function so I'll try and maintain that when thinking about my own life, as hard as that will prove to be.

To define my T2 N1 M0 tumour, this is what is written:

T stands for tumor (its size and how far it has spread within the breast and to nearby organs).
N stands for spread to lymph nodes (bean-shaped collections of immune system cells that help fight infections and cancers).
M is for metastasis (spread to distant organs).

Additional letters or numbers appear after T, N, and M to provide more details about the tumor, lymph nodes, and metastasis:
The letter T followed by a number from 0 to 4 describes the tumor's size and spread to the skin or to the chest wall under the breast. Higher T numbers indicate a larger tumor and/or wider spread to tissues near the breast.
The letter N followed by a number from 0 to 3 indicates whether the cancer has spread to lymph nodes near the breast and, if so, how many lymph nodes are affected.
The letter M followed by a 0 or 1 indicates whether the cancer has spread to distant organs -- for example, the lungs or bones.

So, my tumour being 4cm big is a pretty large tumour and is classed as a 2 out of 4. It spread to 2/21 nodes and it hasn't spread to distant regions as far as the technology available tells them.

Once the T, N, and M categories have been determined, this information is combined in a process called stage grouping. Cancers with similar stages tend to have a similar outlook and are often treated in a similar way. Stage is expressed in Roman numerals from stage I (the least advanced stage) to stage IV (the most advanced stage). Non-invasive cancer is listed as stage 0. I'm stage IIb which isn't as good as IIa, but then again, not as bad as III or IV.

This IIb stage is described the following way:

The tumor is larger than 2 cm and less than 5 cm across. It has spread to 1 to 3 axillary lymph nodes and/or tiny amounts of cancer are found in internal mammary lymph nodes on sentinel lymph node biopsy. The cancer hasn't spread to distant sites.

The numbers below come from the American College of Surgeons National Cancer Data Base, based on women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1995 and 1998. There are some important points to note about these numbers:
The 5-year survival rate refers to the percentage of patients who live at least 5 years after being diagnosed. Many of these patients live much longer than 5 years after diagnosis. Five-year relative survival rates (such as the numbers below) don't include patients who die from other causes. They are considered to be a more accurate way to describe the outlook for patients with a particular type and stage of cancer.
These numbers were derived from patients treated several years ago. While they are among the most current numbers we have available, improvements in treatment since then mean that the survival rates for people now being diagnosed with these cancers are likely to be higher.
While survival statistics can sometimes be useful as a general guide, they may not accurately represent any one person's prognosis. A number of other factors, including other tumor characteristics and a person's age and general health, can also affect outlook.

5-year Relative Survival Rate
0=100%
I=100%
IIA=92%
IIB=81%
IIIA=67%
IIIB=54%
IV=20%

From this, you can see that I'm in the 81% category. I have no idea how this number is influenced by my age (I have a more aggressive form of cancer as do most young people diagnosed) my health, my mental state, my type of treatment etc., but I know that this is information that some want but won't ask so there it is. How do I feel about this? Depends on the day you ask me...