Commonly, cure in clinical practice means that the disease will not recur in 5 years. But breast cancer could probably recur in 10 years or even 20 years So why do some patients need to take medicine of hormone therapy for 10 years. At present, no patients need to take medicine for a lifetime. Ten years will be the longest period. For the cancer patients of stage I to stage III, 80 percent of them will not experience recurrence after being cured.