What Not to Say to Someone With Metastatic Breast Cancer

Learn What to Say Instead to Someone With Stage 4 Breast Cancer

By Lynne Eldridge, MD | Reviewed by a board-certified physician

Updated March 13, 2017

People often wonder what to say to someone with breast cancer—especially metastatic breast cancer.

Since saying something is better than saying nothing, a better question might be to ask what not to say to someone who has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer or whose breast cancer has recurred. First, though, let's take a moment to talk about what it means to have metastatic breast cancer or a recurrence of the disease.

Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC)

Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) refers to breast cancers which have spread (metastasized) to distant regions of the body. When breast cancer spreads to lymph nodes we say that it has metastasized to lymph nodes, but this does not mean it is metastatic breast cancer.

Metastatic breast cancer is also referred to as stage 4 breast cancer, the most advanced stage of the disease. Some people may use the term advanced breast cancer which is defined somewhat differently. Advanced breast includes stage 3B and stage 4 breast cancer, and essentially means breast cancers which cannot be potentially cured with surgery.

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