Are there slim chances for lung cancer survival?
Sep 01, 2010 in
Lung Cancer Questions
My mother in law. Stage 2 with removal of 3rd lobe. 4 rounds of intravenious chemo will not start till next month. Diagnosis in Sept. 09 with surgery Nov.9 of 09. Age 58 life long smoker 98 pounds. Was not in lymph nodes. Was 6 cm in size. What are her survial odds? She’s terrified and telling us she’ll be dead on 5 years tops.
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4 comments
Panda on September 1, 2010 at 3:19 pm
It’s impossible to predict for an individual patient . . however survival of any type of cancer depends on the patients age, type of cancer, grade of tumor, location of tumor, stage at diagnosis, patients overall health, and patients response to first line treatment. There are survivors of lung cancer . . and your mother in law may be one of them. There is always hope. Would recommend that you stay away from ‘statistical’ information as that does not apply to individual patients . . it is not meant to give a patient no hope for the future . .you have no idea what type of treatments may become available to cancer patients in even a few months . . so statistics should never be used to ‘measure’ an individuals life span.
Suggest that you read ‘The Median is NOT the message’ by Stephen Jay Gould
Gould had mesothelioma and was told by well meaning colleagues, physicians, friends, relatives . . (well meaning terminators) that he only had eight months to live according to the statistics for his disease. He disagreed . . and lived for twenty more years despite his ‘grim prognosis’.
"Gould’s The Median Isn’t the Message is the wisest, most humane thing ever written about cancer and statistics. It is the antidote both to those who say that, "the statistics don’t
matter," and to those who have the unfortunate habit of pronouncing death sentences on patients who face
a difficult prognosis. Anyone who researches the medical literature will confront the statistics for their
disease. Anyone who reads this will be armed with reason and with hope. Steve Dunn."
http://fog.ccsf.edu/~abair/median.pdf
Chrys on September 1, 2010 at 3:19 pm
talk to her Dr..we aren’t psychic and not all cancer is alike in all people.
Mya on September 1, 2010 at 3:19 pm
It all depends how successful her remission is and if the cancer has mestastasized or not. Also, the grade, size, etc. of the tumor.
Anja on September 1, 2010 at 3:19 pm
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