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Fighting Cancer

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Re: Fighting Cancer

#21

Post by melling »

danieltillett wrote: post #15
melling wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's really sad is that the state of progress in cancer treatment is extremely slow. Randy Pausch, for example, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about 10 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo There are people receiving the exact same death sentence today, with the same likely outcomes. Anyway, there's a book and a PBS series for anyone interested in learning the more about the current state of…

Cancer is a disease where we are making progress, but not fast enough. The immune-based approaches of the last few years are real progress, but cancers like pancreatic cancer are very hard to fight.

Pancreatic cancer is "hard to fight" because it is seldom detected early, but at a very late stage.

I heard Craig Venter once say that the cure for cancer is early detection. Wish I could find the video.

Re: Fighting Cancer

#22

Post by melling »

Luc wrote: post #14
melling wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's really sad is that the state of progress in cancer treatment is extremely slow. Randy Pausch, for example, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about 10 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo There are people receiving the exact same death sentence today, with the same likely outcomes. Anyway, there's a book and a PBS series for anyone interested in learning the more about the current state of…

Strange, from what I read (including interviews with oncologists) cancer treatment is massively improving, with new treatments available and many fundamental advances in the pipeline. The future is looking bright, with cancer becoming a manageable chronic illness in the next decades.

You're giving me anecdotal information that spans over 20-30 years? Yeah, I'm optimistic that by 2050, we'll be much better off. In the meantime, 7-10 million worldwide will die every year from cancer. We're racing to get self-driving cars to save a lot fewer people.

Re: Fighting Cancer

#23

Post by ciconia »

I've just saw my father die of cancer a week ago. Fortunately, he did this at home and was cared for by his own family, right to the end.

I wouldn't describe this experience as sad or tragic. We knew for a while that the moment was coming. I was lucky enough to be with my dad when he took his last breath, and to have been able to say goodbye. I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do in the face of imminent death.

Re: Fighting Cancer

#24

Post by okket »

melling wrote: post #21
danieltillett wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cancer is a disease where we are making progress, but not fast enough. The immune-based approaches of the last few years are real progress, but cancers like pancreatic cancer are very hard to fight.

Pancreatic cancer is "hard to fight" because it is seldom detected early, but at a very late stage. I heard Craig Venter once say that the cure for cancer is early detection. Wish I could find the video.

(a bit tangential, not directly related to the special case of pancreatic cancer, maybe in this case early detection provides better results)

Early detection is double-edged sword: It is very hard to tell in early stages if the cancer develops into harmful variants and a small false positive error can have drastic consequences, if applied on scale [1]. The result is that many undergo unnecessary therapy with 100% harmful consequences (not life threatening, but permanent damage like removed organs/sterility).

See also: "The Case Against Early Cancer Detection"

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-case-against-early-c...

I'd put my money (research) rather on better treatment than earlier detection.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8xlOm2wPAA

Re: Fighting Cancer

#25

Post by newscracker »

> The only way to beat cancer, really, is to die from something else first.

That was a short and pointed article.

More so after I read a short comic strip on PHD Comics about cancer [1], I can't help but think that "beating cancer" is a very tough (and impossible) goal for the ones suffering from it and the ones looking for better management or reduction of it.

That shining light of optimism after remission is tinged with a hint that a recurrence is just a little while away, and could possibly be the end of life. I also wonder if what happens before death is more painful than the heartbreak that death eventually brings.

[1]: http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1162

Re: Fighting Cancer

#26

Post by karmajunkie »

melling wrote: post #22
Luc wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange, from what I read (including interviews with oncologists) cancer treatment is massively improving, with new treatments available and many fundamental advances in the pipeline. The future is looking bright, with cancer becoming a manageable chronic illness in the next decades.

You're giving me anecdotal information that spans over 20-30 years? Yeah, I'm optimistic that by 2050, we'll be much better off. In the meantime, 7-10 million worldwide will die every year from cancer. We're racing to get self-driving cars to save a lot fewer people.

Its more than anecdotal information. In the last few years 11 new treatments have been approved for stage III and IV cancers that are immune-mediated, which includes melanoma, one of the fastest growing (in terms of incidence) as well as most aggressive cancers.

But the real truth is that cancer isn't a single disease. Treatments move slowly because its a host of different diseases which all exhibit the same symptoms of unrestrained growth and cellular immortality. So yeah, a lot of people are going to die of a lot of different diseases. "Curing cancer" isn't going to happen, because "cancer" isn't one single (or even a few) things to cure.

Re: Fighting Cancer

#27

Post by austinjp »

Luc wrote: post #14
melling wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's really sad is that the state of progress in cancer treatment is extremely slow. Randy Pausch, for example, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about 10 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo There are people receiving the exact same death sentence today, with the same likely outcomes. Anyway, there's a book and a PBS series for anyone interested in learning the more about the current state of…

Strange, from what I read (including interviews with oncologists) cancer treatment is massively improving, with new treatments available and many fundamental advances in the pipeline. The future is looking bright, with cancer becoming a manageable chronic illness in the next decades.

An oncologist gave a friend of mine the ridiculous opinion that there would be a cure for cancer within 5 years. That was 6 years ago.

I say ridiculous because medicine is awash with similar predictions, the vast majority of which have never come true, or materialise far far later than anticipated.

The future does indeed look bright... from the very specific perspective of the researchers. Unfortunately if you are someone actually living with lung cancer or pancreatic cancer, for example, that bright future suddenly looks a lot murkier.

Fortunately my friend remains in remission, while I remain flabbergasted at the irresponsibility of that oncologist.

Re: Fighting Cancer

#28

Post by [deleted] »

melling wrote: post #22
Luc wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange, from what I read (including interviews with oncologists) cancer treatment is massively improving, with new treatments available and many fundamental advances in the pipeline. The future is looking bright, with cancer becoming a manageable chronic illness in the next decades.

You're giving me anecdotal information that spans over 20-30 years? Yeah, I'm optimistic that by 2050, we'll be much better off. In the meantime, 7-10 million worldwide will die every year from cancer. We're racing to get self-driving cars to save a lot fewer people.

[deleted]

Re: Fighting Cancer

#29

Post by jMyles »

A beautiful read, for many of the reasons already mentioned here.

I'm inclined to rethink this one question, though:

> Can a single individual patient second-guess the medical machine? Is that really their duty?

I don't know if it's anyone's duty, but I think it's completely plausible for a single patient or small group of patients to arrive at a more patient-focused conclusion than the medical industry.

Re: Fighting Cancer

#30

Post by mhurron »

melling wrote: post #22
Luc wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange, from what I read (including interviews with oncologists) cancer treatment is massively improving, with new treatments available and many fundamental advances in the pipeline. The future is looking bright, with cancer becoming a manageable chronic illness in the next decades.

You're giving me anecdotal information that spans over 20-30 years? Yeah, I'm optimistic that by 2050, we'll be much better off. In the meantime, 7-10 million worldwide will die every year from cancer. We're racing to get self-driving cars to save a lot fewer people.

> I'm optimistic that by 2050, we'll be much better off. In the meantime, 7-10 million worldwide will die every year from cancer

That's sort of how progress and improvements work, they benefit those that come later.

> We're racing to get self-driving cars to save a lot fewer people

And those people working on cars are probably don't have the skills or drive to deal with medical research. That not everyone on the planet is working on what you believe they should be means nothing.

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