Jean, I believe you start counting after "active treatment" - surgery and/or radiation and/or chemo. Not sure about Herceptin, but I believe that's considered a maintenance drug. Best thing to do is to ask your doctor to show you a recurrence chart - they have these easy to read charts showing how the risk goes down, and along what timeframe. It's different for everyone, depending on what type/severity of cancer you have. I think he one common milepost we all share is that, if you haven't had a recurrence after 20 years, chances are minuscule that you'll have one. Good luck! - PJH

I was told originally by my oncologist that if I could stay in remittance (after treatment ended) for 5 years I would be doing GREAT and have very LOW risk of reoccurence.

Unfortunately I only made it exactly 3 years from the day I was told my lumpectomy tested positive to the day I found out that my plastic surgeon found a suspicious scar tissue area that tested positive.  My docs think that this recurrence is part of my original cancer from 3 years ago, even though I had a modified radical mastectomy - they think that while all was clear and I went through chemo, they think that the Femara I take daily (following chemo) isn't working to keep what little estrogen I still have from feeding into my cancer. 

So my case is hopefully a little rarer than your regular occurence.  I was looking forward to that 3rd anniversay, but now I'm back to day to day.  Hopefully you'll hit #5 with no reoccurence!  Best of luck to you!