I just wish it were the same for pets. We've lost two cats to cancer in the past two years. There's so much they can do to extend quality of life, but not much in the way of actually extending their lives.
Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
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Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#12I agree, my dad was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2020. One of the drugs that he was given as part of the anti-cancer regimen "Avastin" - starves the tumor of blood supply, effectively limiting growth, this differs from conventional chemo which attacks both healthy and cancer cells.
After 22 cycles, he went into remission earlier this year.
Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the interesting developments is precision medicine: we can now use genomic sequencing and AI to "search" for the treatment that is most likely to be effective against a particular individual's cancer rather than following the rough "standard of care" playbook (for example, depending on the type of cancer, the standard of care might be 6 months of chemo, and if that doesn't work try something else, repeat until…
> repeat until cancer goes away or patient dies This sounds very similar to participating in a clinical trial and to me ironically seems to be the opposite of precision medicine. The Nagourney Cancer Institute cultures live cancer cells from the patient to test for what drugs may work. Doesn't work for everyone, but seems more in line with precision. Whereas genomic sequencing hasn't produced the amazing results that…
> This sounds very similar to participating in a clinical trial and to me ironically seems to be the opposite of precision medicine.
yes, to be clear this is a description of "standard of care" in which oncologists follow a playbook based on the type of cancer. Precision medicine (as I, a lay person, understand it) involves picking a treatment that is very likely to work based on an individual's genes, the genes of their tumor, their past medical history, and other relevant factors. The idea is to use all available information to identify the treatment that is the most likely to succeed for that individual.
Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#14In addition to medical developments, I think that clean living has become more popular than ever. In 2021, you see people who would never have been interested in a healthy diet eating properly. And obesity is an significant risk factor for cancer.
Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#15In addition to medical developments, I think that clean living has become more popular than ever. In 2021, you see people who would never have been interested in a healthy diet eating properly. And obesity is an significant risk factor for cancer.
I hope you're right, but over the past year we went kept packing on weight.
A majority of adults (61%) reported experiencing undesired weight changes since the start of the pandemic, with more than 2 in 5 (42%) saying they gained more weight than they intended. Of this group, adults reported gaining an average of 29 pounds (with a typical gain of 15 pounds, which is the median).
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2021/one-year...
Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#16I just wish it were the same for pets. We've lost two cats to cancer in the past two years. There's so much they can do to extend quality of life, but not much in the way of actually extending their lives.
This is very heart breaking. I love my cat just like a child, he's my everything, and I spend an important part of my day, playing with him, taking care of him etc. Seeing him dead would absolutely devastate me: but being a 20 something, it's very likely this will happen sometime in my lifetime (my cat is 2 years old)!
Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#17I agree, my dad was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2020. One of the drugs that he was given as part of the anti-cancer regimen "Avastin" - starves the tumor of blood supply, effectively limiting growth, this differs from conventional chemo which attacks both healthy and cancer cells. After 22 cycles, he went into remission earlier this year.
Avastin blocks vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
There are also drugs that block epidermal growth factor (EGF), like Cuba's CIMAvax for lung cancer.
Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#18I just wish it were the same for pets. We've lost two cats to cancer in the past two years. There's so much they can do to extend quality of life, but not much in the way of actually extending their lives.
Sometimes with humans we spend too much effort extending life without considering quality of life.
Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#19Tell that to my friend who died last month at 43. Sorry. It's hard not to be bitter right now. Fuck Cancer.
We can’t, he’s dead.
Re: Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds
#20A close family member has stage 4 cancer. Even if the absolute death rates for some cancers are relatively unchanged, one of the amazing things I’ve observed is that medical advances have increased the long term survival rates of terminal/metastaticized cancers. It’s partially due to the development of various drugs that have been identified as effective against various specific mutations. Even if the cancer is incur…
for a 40 year old diagnosed with stage 4 cancer ,a few extra years ain't much