Since 2019, I have lived my life in three-month cycles, from scan to scan. But now that I have had two consecutive stable scans, is it time to envision living my life in more than three-month increments? I hear the speaker of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” ask, “Do I dare/Disturb the universe?”
“Thanks to a combination of forces, cancer drug development is now happening fast enough…it is outpacing the growth of cancer cells…” Kate Pickert writes in “Are We Learning to Outrun Cancer.” It’s true. Like she said, I have “…access to so many treatment options that [I am] able to leap from one to the next, changing course whenever [my] cancer becomes resistant to a drug, always staying ahead of [my] disease.”
Abigail Johnston’s beautiful and eye-opening blog post “On Outliving the Statistics” details what it means to “outlive” the 30% five-year relative survival rate for MBC. Living with MBC means keeping constant vigilance, pivoting and reframing your future while keeping up on the latest research, and most importantly, making sure everyone has a ticket for this ride!
Living with MBC is also not just about planning for my future. It’s about making sure:
- Everyone has access to high-quality healthcare
- Underrepresented communities have access to clinical trials
- My provider “create[s] the environment and infrastructure” so that everyone can benefit from a combination of “cutting-edge science and drugs” equally.
Because now is the time to recommit to your advocacy. To double down. Now is the time to “disturb the universe” and let your voice be heard.
Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s Beyond the Headlines offers you a way to stay on top of breast cancer news.
Read Kate Pickert’s Radical: The Science, Culture, and History of Breast Cancer in America
Plan to attend Knowledge is power: The Black breast cancer experience in September
Overexpressed 
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