For many breast cancer survivors, the risk of recurrence is foremost in their minds, but for Cheryl Hodsoll, a four-year breast cancer survivor, she worries most about her daughter's risks.

Ms Hodsoll, 48, knows the chances of her daughter being diagnosed are now higher since she found out she had breast cancer.

"I was the first in my family to be detected with breast cancer and it was surprising and shattering to find out that I had it," Ms Hodsoll said.

"The hardest part about finding out I had breast cancer though was having to come home and tell my daughter.

"My 32-year-old daughter has lost two relatives on her father's side due to breast cancer so she now has regular check-ups because there is a higher chance of getting breast cancer when it is in the family."

Ms Hodsoll said she was shocked when a mammogram detected a lump in her breast especially because she believed she was leading a healthy life by eating well and staying active.

She had a mastectomy in August, 1999 after a lumpectomy was unsuccessful. Six months of chemotherapy followed.

Although she was unable to feel the lump herself, Ms Hodsoll still believes monthly self-exams are important, and she urged women to continue with their yearly mammograms.

"I went through six months of chemotherapy. That affects everyone very differently, I didn't lose my hair or anything and because it was detected at such an early stage it hadn't travelled to my lymph nodes so there was no need for excessive chemotherapy treatment."

For the last four years, there has been no recurrence of cancer but Ms Hodsoll still has one more year until the critical five years are up. It is sometimes difficult period because the chance of the cancer recurring is higher during the five years after diagnosis.

Successful drugs, such as tamoxifen, have helped prevent breast cancer from recurring for now for Ms Hodsoll, but there are other harmful side effects that must be monitored while taking the drugs for the five years.

Two oncologists from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston explained the progress of breast cancer medications during a recent lecture held by the TB, Cancer and Health Association.

Dr. Ursula Matulonis, the director of medical gynaecological oncology at the centre, said that survival rates have improved for breast cancer patients because of mammography and timely surgery and also because of the drug tamoxifen.

But taking tamoxifen for more than five years has no benefit said Dr. Craig Bunnell, the director of oncology services at Dana-Farber, and for that reason patients are only prescribed the drug for those critical years.

After the five years of tamoxifen, Ms Hodsoll might be prescribed the drug letrozole, an oestrogen suppresser, that has received acclaim after reducing the recurrence of breast cancer.

About 50 percent of the women who took the drug during recent testing were less likely to redevelop breast cancer and it was so effective that testing was halted so that those on the placebo pill could start taking the drug.

And Dr. Bunnell said with letrozole there were now successful drugs that could follow up tamoxifen.

Other breast cancers such as HER-2/neu positive cancers had seen results and "dramatic change" from chemotherapy plus the drug Herceptin, said Dr. Bunnell.

And all of the drugs available across the US were accessible to women diagnosed with breast cancer in Bermuda, said new local oncologist Dr. Kannan Thiruvengadasamy. For now, radiation was the only treatment that patients could not receive on the Island, he said.

With the future of new drug treatments looking brighter, Ms Hodsoll is staying strong through her last critical year and is continuing to go to the gym and stay healthy.

She has been involved in the breast cancer support group Just Between Us and actively takes part in organising the group's teen fashion show.

"Because I have God in my life I believe that has been a big help. I knew he wasn't going to let me go through anything I couldn't handle," she said.