re: Figured we could all use some good news, Old Bird Beat Cancer

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Seriously, how can some overcome stage 4 cancer, while others cannot?
Don't go "miracles happen" on me, I just want scientific answers.

And congrats to Old Bird.

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Combination of things.

When someone is deemed stage 4 it general means a primary tumor (breast in the ladies case) + distant metastasis. Could be a lymph node. Could be another organ, such as lung, bone, liver etc. However, just saying someone is Stage 4 doesn't tell the entire story of their cancer.

While they are concerned about "stages" as they are correlated to prognosis they are also concerned with what is called tumor burden and local invasion. Basically how big a tumor is and how nasty that fricker is.

Someone could have a relatively nonaggressive metastatic disease vs someone could have a really aggressive local disease. It all really depends on the type of primary tumor and site of metastasis.

Another possibility is she could of been staged incorrectly.