PSA: What Not to Say

On the YSC boards, there's a discussion thread that resurfaces periodically about the things people to say (meaning well) that sort of miss the mark.

I think the biggest one is "Well, at least they caught it early." Basically, just because someone is young doesn't mean they caught it early, so that's potentially a big foot in mouth moment.

Also, back in the olden days of breast cancer diagnosis, the main classification they used was stage (stage I, stage II, etc.). Stages are still used, but they are one of many factors now, including:
- hormone receptor status
- Her2/neu status
- tumor grade
- lymphovascular invasion (or not)
- lymph node involvement
- age
- genetic status
- family history
- whether the cancer has spread elsewhere (aka, metastasis)

All of these factors impact a) how fast the cancer grew in the first place, and b) the patient's treatment options and prognosis. So "early" doesn't really have much meaning.