Hi Dobs,

The moderators asked us if we could post an answer as you have not had any replies. I am sorry to hear about your sister, this must be a difficult time for the family.

I don’t know exactly which tablets your sister would have taken. It is possible that it was a hormone tablet. These were routinely given for a standard 5 year period to treat hormone sensitive breast cancer so I think it would have been normal then to stop the treatment after 5 years.

These tablets can lower the risk of an early breast cancer coming back or spreading to the other breast, but unfortunately they don’t always work well enough, so sometimes the cancer comes back despite taking them.

When doctors say someone is all clear what they mean is that as far as they can tell there is no detectable sign of the cancer, but unfortunately this isn’t a guarantee.  This is because very small amounts of cancerous cells can’t be seen on scans. So if some escape before surgery and they survive and settle down somewhere in the body, later on they can go on to form secondary cancers (metastases).

If you have any questions about your sister’s situation, perhaps you could contact the breast care nurse at the hospital and see if someone can help you understand what happened.

Kind regards

Deborah