[Crossposted to a.s.c.b. and s.m.d.c.]

I met a woman in her early 90s who had terrible lymphedema in her right arm.
I asked her if it was from a mastectomy, and she said yes, but she'd had the
mastectomy *45* years ago (!) and only developed the lymphedema *3* years
ago.

She also said she now has "bone cancer."  I asked if that meant bone
metastases from the 1960 breast cancer, and she said yes.

As I say, this lady was very old, but she was cognitively intact.  I asked
someone else who knows her whether I had heard correctly (I thought maybe
she meant "4 or 5 years" rather than "45 years"), and this person confirmed
that the story was true.

Although it was certainly a good thing to hear that someone has survived for
45 years, I found it very disheartening to discover once again that you're
*never* "out of the woods" with breast cancer.

Any comments?

Eva