A U.S. study published on Tuesday showed that women who survived breast cancer for five years after they had finished the treatment have lower risks of the cancer recurring. The study also refers to women with stage III breast cancer. They have only 13% risk of the cancer recurring if they got over the first five years without cancer.

Still, the study was made only among the women who didn’t use the new treatments such as Herceptin or the aromatase inhibitors. 2,838 women in the U.S. were tracked by the researchers.

They had no cancer recurrence within the first five years after they had finished the treatment which consisted of removing the tumor, following chemotherapy or hormone therapy.

The woman with I stage breast cancer, when the tumor is small and doesn’t spread, cancer recurred after five years in only 7% of the women. Only 11% of the women with stage II breast cancer got sick again after the first five years, as the tumor is a bit large and could extend to the lymph nodes under the arm.

"I actually think that patients think that the risk is a lot higher than it is. So I hope that this paper somewhat reassures them that their risk of recurrence after they are five-year survivors is probably not as high as they think it is," Dr. Abenaa Brewster of the Texas University in Huston said.

The study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and women treated at M.D. Anderson between 1985 and 2001 had been under this investigation.

Breast cancer is the first death cause among women all over the world. At least 465,000 women die annually because of this disease.