At age 60 my non tobacco mother had widow maker heart attack fortunately she drove herself to ER before she died twice and the medical staff saved her. Two stents were put in. She is taking her Rx. A year later she had a breast cancer tumor removed. At least one lymph node removed also had cancer cells. She choose not to have radiation or chemo . I do not think she is taking any Rx for the cancer. She seems more scared about heart issues. What would you guess about her life expectancy range now at age 62?
Basically your mother is suffering from breast cancer which has been operated upon, and she is a known patient of heart disease for which she has been scented. The biopsy shows that at least one node has tumor. Ideally in such a situation I would recommend chemotherapy to her. But that she can't take safely due to her heart condition. What I would like to know before I can comment upon her survival is the size of the tumor that was removed and whether it has spread to other parts of the body (on chest x-ray, ultrasound abdomen, bone scan). If it's an early tumor (less than 5 cm in size, not spread), then the chances of her being cured just with surgery are nearly 80%. We can further improve these chances by knowing her receptor status. This test can be done on the tumor that has already been removed and is called ER (Estrogen receptor) and PR (progesterone receptor). If any of these are positive then she can be placed on a tablet for 5 years. This tablet will not affect her heart and decrease the chances of disease recurrence by almost 33%.