A new study on breast cancer comes to reassure women that their recurrence risk lowers in time, especially if they “are five-year survivors.”

The study, published in the August 12 issue of the Journal of National Cancer Institute, was conducted Dr. Abenaa Brewster of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and colleagues.

The 2,838 participants in the study were treated at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center between 1985 and 2001. They were treated for stage I to III breast cancers with chemotherapy, tamoxifen, or both after their initial treatment with surgery or surgery and radiation.

Tamoxifen was often prescribed prior to 2000 for postmenopausal patients with tumors that respond to hormone treatments for a period of five years after the surgery to cease the production of hormones that fuel cancer cell growth, thus preventing cancer from returning.

These days, women are prescribed a new class of estrogen-targeting drugs, known as aromatase inhibitors, for the treatment of hormone-sensitive breast cancers, which have better results than the old treatment, so these women might do better when it comes to cancer recurrence.

After five years of treatment, the researchers surprisingly found that the risk of recurrence was 7 percent in women treated for stage I disease, 11 percent in women treated for stage II disease and 13 percent in women treated for stage III disease.

Of the total, 216 patients developed a recurrence of cancerous lumps in breasts.

The study also showed that 89 percent of the patients who survived breast cancer remained disease-free 10 years after diagnosis and 81 percent were cancer-free after 15 years.

“Patients often ask me, ‘Now that I’ve survived my breast cancer, what is my future risk of a recurrence?’ This is an answer we’ve had a hard time giving. They remain really terrified about their risk. I actually think that patients think that the risk is a lot higher than it is. So I hope that this paper somewhat reassures them that their risk of recurrence after they are five-year survivors is probably not as high as they think it is,” Dr. Brewster said.

Another interesting finding of the study was that besides the stage of cancer at diagnosis, hormone receptor status affected the recurrence risk as well.

“Women who had ER-positive cancer were more likely to have late recurrences that those with ER-negative,” Brewster said. Only 34 ER-negative women had a relapse compared to 149 ER-positive.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the top cause of cancer death among women worldwide with an estimated 465,000 death annually. In the US each year, more than 180,000 new breast cancer cases are diagnosed and more than 40,000 women die because of it.

American Cancer Society’ deputy chief medical officer Dr. Len Lichtenfeld cautioned about the findings of the study saying that it leaves some unanswered questioned. More exactly, he questions whether “other treatment programs may be appropriate in some of these women after the five-year period is completed.”