81–90 of 147 posts
Is there actually some kind of list which shows in a table what kind of cancers are currently treatable by which experimental medicine?
https://www.cancer.net/research-and-advocacy/clinical-trials...
My aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and is only alive because of this drug. It’s a marvel of modern medicine.
Would you be willing to share a few more details for me to understand? It would help me talk more concretely with my colleagues. So she had stage 4 lung cancer. "Is alive only because of this drug": - Was her life expectancy obviously prolonged? If so, by how much has she exceeded it so far? - Has the cancer progressed more slowly, halted, or regressed? Thanks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
PSA: If you have dependents, or think you might, get some life insurance in place now while you're relatively young. I've had too many friends/colleagues pass away unexpectedly without any (or not remotely enough) life insurance, leaving a spouse and young children behind, inevitably turning to gofundme and similar just to get by.
I actually tried that but the ones I've found had explicit clauses against cancer and other diseases in fine print. Apparently they only help if you get hit by a car and alike. Probably need to make another pass. (I'm in Europe)
FWIW, my policies don't have any specific denials for certain causes of death (particular disease, etc) but I did have to provide medical records (and I'm not in perfect health).
A friend died of lung cancer. Went from mild cough to funeral in about 5 weeks. 40 yo. 2 pre-teen kids. Started to look after my own health a bit more. This is a very welcome development.
PSA: If you have dependents, or think you might, get some life insurance in place now while you're relatively young. I've had too many friends/colleagues pass away unexpectedly without any (or not remotely enough) life insurance, leaving a spouse and young children behind, inevitably turning to gofundme and similar just to get by.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry, but two months to five months after 50 years and hundreds of billions of dollars. That was hardly the promise of the "war on cancer"!
You are, again, failing to note that it’s a right skewed distribution. The mean is not what you care about.
It seems relevant, as a patient to ask, on average, how much longer will I live if I take this drug?
My aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and is only alive because of this drug. It’s a marvel of modern medicine.
My wife was diagnosed in Nov '23. Stage 4. She had a mutation that allowed Tagrisso/osimertinib. There are many mutations, but this one is prevalent in Asian women who have never smoked. There was a trial published just after her diagnosis that showed progression free survival at 2 years of 57% (chemo+osimertinib) vs 41% (osimertinib). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2306434 She's 6 days into the chemo. T…
Make sure to grab family and friends to help out. The want to help out, most of the time, at least. I know it's hard to ask, but make sure to do it anyways.
And yeah, standard generic advice to take care of yourself too. I hated that advice, as there just was never any time to do so. One thing that helped was to schedule that 'me' time in and make others aware of it. If you put it on the schedule, you'll have a better chance of taking it.
Two tips with MDs:
1) Carry and use a notebook in all MD interactions. Just a simple journal is all. Time, medications given, dosages, MD administering, etc. It's a good back up to have, sure, but you'll likely never use it. The real power is when MDs see you writing things down. They take you more seriously and they take themselves more seriously. I think they think that you'll sue now and have some proof. But who knows.
2) If you're in for a long term treatment (1+ nights) put a big bowl of candy outside the door. Nurses etc. will stop by more often to check up on things and generally seem to like you more. Consider putting cigarettes in there too, depending on if your nurses smoke. Then they will really like you and go above and beyond.
Again, best of luck to you both.
FUCK cancer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry, but two months to five months after 50 years and hundreds of billions of dollars. That was hardly the promise of the "war on cancer"!
You are, again, failing to note that it’s a right skewed distribution. The mean is not what you care about.
I think the skewed distribution is less relevant than the sample group. There are limits to what we can expect from medicine. We don't have improved survival after decapitation, but that doesn't mean surgery has been at a standstill.
It would be interesting to look up survival rates for earlier stages. I expect the difference would be more substantial.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry, but two months to five months after 50 years and hundreds of billions of dollars. That was hardly the promise of the "war on cancer"!
To be fair, there are other cancers that are essentially cured. Lung cancer is a particularly nasty one for a number of reasons. It's hard to fight with the laws of physics or biology, so I'm curious who promised you something else. In general though, I tend to agree that in the US we spend far too much on what essentially boils down to performative end of Life Care. If you ask someone if they would rather spend $200…
You're right, there are a small handful of unusual cancers that we have cures for, and that's great. And some small progress has been made overall. But a lot of money has been spent, and it has been half a century or more, and we don't have much to show for our efforts.
My aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and is only alive because of this drug. It’s a marvel of modern medicine.
Would you be willing to share a few more details for me to understand? It would help me talk more concretely with my colleagues. So she had stage 4 lung cancer. "Is alive only because of this drug": - Was her life expectancy obviously prolonged? If so, by how much has she exceeded it so far? - Has the cancer progressed more slowly, halted, or regressed? Thanks.
In general, these types of cancers spew mets and spread quickly. Many are resistant to chemo, go to the brain (chemo cannot help there) and only respond to high focused radiation like SRS or proton beam.
Immunotherapies essentially suppress checkpoints that cancer cells use to avoid immune response and/or cause your body to target specific checkpoints. I can’t read FT.com, but I believe it’s talking about a targeted therapy that allows your body to control the cancer.
There’s alot of research happening around things like immunotherapy combined with custom versions of Moderna and other vaccines that will significantly improve treatment and save people going through what my wife went through. It’s a good time.