Both my parents and a sister died of lung cancer. They all smoked. I've never smoked, but I'm not naive enough to think that I couldn't develop lung cancer. My mother and father's lung cancers were untreatable. My sister, who had stopped smoking five years before, was diagnosed with small cell, limited stage lung cancer (lung and lympth node) in February 2010. She underwent approximately 50 radiation treatments and multiple chemo treatments. The doctor told her that small cell cancer is the most aggressive, but it also responds to treatment. Would it come back? Yes he said...with a vengeance. One of the nurses working the chemo therapy unit told us that cancer has become a chronic disease: you're diagnosed, are given treatments, it goes into remission, it comes back...and the cycle replays itself.
In August of 2010, my sister underwent 10 radiation treatments of the brain to help keep the cancer from spreading there. In June of 2011, they discovered the cancer had gone to her brain. She entered hospice care on July 1st, and died Sept. 2, 2011 on her 69th birthday.
Despite the advances in cancer treatment, it's still more likely to be terminal, than beatable.
“Despite the advances in cancer treatment, it’s still more likely to be terminal, than beatable.”
Are you sure?
“•Relative survival can vary greatly by type of cancer. This variation can be seen in the four cancers that account for over 50% of the new cases diagnosed each year. In 2000-2002, five-year relative survival for lung cancer (both sexes) was low at 15%, while the prognosis for colorectal cancer (both sexes) was fair (colon 60%, rectum 62%) and breast cancer (female) and prostate cancer relative survival was high at 87% and 95% respectively.”
This is from a Canadian study: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-226-x/2011001/aftertoc-aprestdm2-eng.htm