Important notes for anyone and their family, if they develop cancer.
1) It must be the personal priority of that person, with the help of their family, to get treatment without delay.
2) Most cancers are treatable, so the biggest factor in mortality is procrastination. Patients often go into denial, or find reasons to not get treatment; and some doctors are just as bad, delaying their treatment for vital months.
3) Less treatable cancers are best addressed by the patient moving to one of the regional cancer research nodes in the country. Then they can “go shopping” to various research facilities to try and get in on new therapies. This also strongly helps these research facilities because they often have a hard time getting test subjects.
4) A very accurate diagnosis for an exact kind of cancer is vital, because different cancers have different treatment regimens. For example, there are 12-15 different kinds of breast cancer, and each one has a somewhat different *optimal* therapy. A “sub-optimal” or general therapy may work, but it is always better to have a fine tuned therapy.
5) Fatalism is self-destructive. Even when a cancer has metastasized, that is, spread through the body, in some cases treatments are so effective that they can wipe it out no matter where it is.
6) Ironically, so much research is being done today, that *nobody* has all the facts. So it is vital to continue to research every aspect and element of the disease and its treatments. This can be downright dangerous if you are getting oncological therapy from somebody who is “behind the curve” in the latest advances in treating that kind of cancer.
In God's good time there will be a cure.
Forgive me for not sharing your optimism. The cancer cure rate for every kind of cancer with the exception of childhood leukemia has not changed appreciably since the ‘60s. It has been the experience of several family members that treatments last for 2-5 years before cancer attacks again. In spite of the enormous medical expense, we are a far way from curing cancer.
One form of denial is “fear”.
Everything you say is true but sometimes cancer cannot be beaten. My first wife had an absolutely clear mammogram in January of 1997 and a walnut sized tumor removed in December of 1997. A growth to that size in that time is beyond any expectation. She fought like a pissed-off Marine for six years but died in my arms. She had surgery four times, radiation 30 times, at least five different courses of chemo and was seen by some of the best oncologists in the country.
Never give up or lose hope but sometimes Goliath wins.
#6 is very important. Sadly the internet does not have all the information on various cancers one would think. Medical research is not easily found with a Google search.
The first instinct is to Google your anticipated surgery and treatments. That’s fine, but as you pointed out one size may not fit all.
I would add another point. Prior to my colon cancer surgery, the surgeon, and oncologist were confident my cancer was Stage 1. However the post op analysis of the cancerous tissue removed is the defining event. I was upgraded to 3a after the post OP pathology report.