Anyone else?
Anyone else think we stand, stumble or sit on the edge of a whole new world of cancer treatment and prognoses. I dont know about you, but I'm feeling incredibly lucky.
Comments
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Yes. Every day.
After my husband got cancer, I was a depressed mess. Everyone said "stay off the internet, don't google, blah blah"
Well, what I discovered in all of that depression and googling, is that every day there is new discoveries and break throughs in treating cancer. My internet searches and readings daily affirmed that indeed we are moving forward. Especially in kidney cancer. In 2000, I think there was only 1 approved treatment for Kidney cancer or maybe one more. Instead of getting depressed, I became educated and empowered with the knowledge. The cure is close, you have to believe it.
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Beginning of the Renaissance Age?
When I was first diagnosed in 2012 my surgeon told me that he believed oncology was still in the “Dark Ages”. At the time I sadly believed him and sincerely believed I would be dead within three years. Well, May 28th marked my four year anniversary. I am still here… working full time and living my life. I truly believe we are entering the beginning of a revolution in cancer care where cancer will no longer be viewed as a death sentence but as a chronic treatable disease. Do you remember back in the 80’s and 90’s HIV/Aids was an automatic death sentence. Do you remember Magic Johnson? Who in 1991 was given two years to live because of his HIV diagnosis; Magic Johnson quit the NBA and went home to die. Well now 25 years later with better treatments Magic Johnson is alive and well (I saw his yacht in West Palm Beach Florida….. Very Nice!). Is HIV/Aids still a deathly disease – Hell Yes! But it now medically considered a chronic treatable disease.
Let face it we are all in a club nobody ever wanted to join. But with newer and better treatment options we may be members a lot longer than anyone would have guessed just a few short years ago. - BDS
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Things MUST change
Stomps & Friends,
An unconscionable amount of patients are still lopped into the "BIG 3" of treatments for cancer: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. These treatments are going on 120 to 75 years old. What's happened in 75 years? A computer was once the size of small house and did rudimentary calculations. Now, we have phones that are 8 millimeters thick and talk to us in seconds. People watched "I Love Lucy" on TV screens that were 6 inches wide (about the same as an iPhone 6 Plus) and they watch "The Big Bang Theory" on TVs 70 inches wide in High Definition. The only thing where technology and research seems to have stalled is in the cancer field.
Now, I don't buy into all the nonsense about "conspiracies." But I do think that the big issue with the medical field is that doctors just get too rolled up into their "specialties" and won't consider other things. New and innovative approaches to medicine are often called "quackery" by those who would hang onto their prescribed methods. How many people have we seen on this board have to undergo a maiming, "open" procedure for their surgery because their only option is a doctor who has refused to be trained in laparoscopic or robotic techniques? Doctors are just too resistant to learning new things sometimes. Imagine in your job if they got a new computer system and you refused to use it and you hung on to your old one, being the only one in the office not to embrace change. You'd be FIRED, right?
Look at my son's clubfoot, for example. The methods used are called the "Ponseti method" after Dr. Ignatius Ponseti. It took, LITERALLY, 50 YEARS of him doing this method before it became a standard in care for clubfoot. As little as TEN YEARS AGO doctors were still breaking babies' bones and doing complex surgeries to try to correct clubfoot, often causing more harm then good. Because they get so worked up into their own EGO that they refuse to consider other options. I have never seen a field in which learning new methods and embracing new research is so frowned upon.
If there's an "conspiracy," it's of IGNORANCE. I know that's a tough word, but doctors sometimes need to get their heads out of their A$$E$ and be open to new approaches and new research. You hear too many stories of things being suppressed or put on the back burner because other doctors don't accept it. And that's just ridiculous. We ARE on the cusp of a new frontier of cancer research, and I DO believe that we are about to see a great explosion of new treatments. But everyone in the field needs to embrace it. What these treatments are going to cost is an argument for another time...
- Jay
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Cant agree Jayjason.2835 said:Things MUST change
Stomps & Friends,
An unconscionable amount of patients are still lopped into the "BIG 3" of treatments for cancer: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. These treatments are going on 120 to 75 years old. What's happened in 75 years? A computer was once the size of small house and did rudimentary calculations. Now, we have phones that are 8 millimeters thick and talk to us in seconds. People watched "I Love Lucy" on TV screens that were 6 inches wide (about the same as an iPhone 6 Plus) and they watch "The Big Bang Theory" on TVs 70 inches wide in High Definition. The only thing where technology and research seems to have stalled is in the cancer field.
Now, I don't buy into all the nonsense about "conspiracies." But I do think that the big issue with the medical field is that doctors just get too rolled up into their "specialties" and won't consider other things. New and innovative approaches to medicine are often called "quackery" by those who would hang onto their prescribed methods. How many people have we seen on this board have to undergo a maiming, "open" procedure for their surgery because their only option is a doctor who has refused to be trained in laparoscopic or robotic techniques? Doctors are just too resistant to learning new things sometimes. Imagine in your job if they got a new computer system and you refused to use it and you hung on to your old one, being the only one in the office not to embrace change. You'd be FIRED, right?
Look at my son's clubfoot, for example. The methods used are called the "Ponseti method" after Dr. Ignatius Ponseti. It took, LITERALLY, 50 YEARS of him doing this method before it became a standard in care for clubfoot. As little as TEN YEARS AGO doctors were still breaking babies' bones and doing complex surgeries to try to correct clubfoot, often causing more harm then good. Because they get so worked up into their own EGO that they refuse to consider other options. I have never seen a field in which learning new methods and embracing new research is so frowned upon.
If there's an "conspiracy," it's of IGNORANCE. I know that's a tough word, but doctors sometimes need to get their heads out of their A$$E$ and be open to new approaches and new research. You hear too many stories of things being suppressed or put on the back burner because other doctors don't accept it. And that's just ridiculous. We ARE on the cusp of a new frontier of cancer research, and I DO believe that we are about to see a great explosion of new treatments. But everyone in the field needs to embrace it. What these treatments are going to cost is an argument for another time...
- Jay
My wife is a scientist working in exactly this field. Everthing has to be rigourously tested before it can be used in human, as is right: we do not want another Thalidomide!
Clear sky thinking, which eventually leads to radicall change needs to be funded, yet is nearly always the first to be cut. Believe me, these people ( which includes my wife) are both dedicated and frustrated.
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Donnadonna_lee said:Weekend news article
Researchers have created a blood test that can find snippets of the Cancer DNA. It can help avoid a biopsy and give oncologists an early lead in Dx and type of treatment to use. Now that's progress.
donna_lee
Do you have a link to thenews article?
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Lucky?
I cringe thinking about people who have trusted the wrong doctors. And they are no longer here to discuss this.... I may be the luckiest one. I went from, "there is nothing we can do," and "you've got 6 months to live," to "Welcome to the nivo trial." I have since had some problems but with todays treatments that are available, I'm still here 5 years later. And I will tell you that the way I feel now, tells me, that I'll be here awhile. Very lucky indeed.
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Fox - Stomps - Jay
That's the best news I've heard all day Fox!!
Jay, I'm leaning Stomps way on this one, I have friends that are doctors and they relay virtually the same information as Mrs. Stomps. Their hands are tied and not for a lack of trying. Red tape. It is frustrating for sure and government certainly plays a role in it all. Limitations, etc, and the skeptic in me sometimes makes me wonder if it doesn't have a bit to do with $$$. For example, the last few years of my career I worked as a Hyperbaric Tech in an Outpatient Wound Care Dept. within the hospital. (it was a fairly easy transition from my former Respiratory Therapist position there) Anyway, there are only 14 diagnosis' that can be treated with Hyperbarics, according to Medicare. Although there are many other diagnosis' that would potentially benefit from such treatment, the doctors cannot treat with this modality because no insurance will pay for it if it isn't Medicare approved. More red tape.
Medicine is going through some major changes these days, and maybe the day is in the near future where the $$$ won't be the first concern, but rather the best interest of the patient.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Donna~
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Info on DNA blood testing
Stomps, I don't recall exactly which paper, so I just typed in "Cancer DNA blood test" and up popped a list of research info. One in China and several in the US. It seems that even cancer cells shed into the blood, so they can look at the DNA in those cells and find out what kind of tumor (in a limited number of cancers), look at if it's genetic cancer and sometimes determine which chemo or treatment would be appropriate.
That's the kind of info that fits right into our upcoming Relay for Life, with a theme of Mission Possible.
Hope this info leads you someplace successful.
donna_lee
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No Longer Afraid!hardo718 said:Just heard
good news about Keytruda and lung cancer, so there's a start.
Donna~
When I was first diagnosed 4 years ago and 5 surgeries later, I was afraid I was going to run out of body parts before anything could be controlled/cured regarding kidney cancer. I am no longer afraid, we have so many here that are still going strong with meds that have been prescribed and have paved the way for those of us that have not had to go that path! Most of the fear has been replaced with strength and willpower, and a fight in me to keep going! Thanks to all of you who have helped get me to this point!
Love and prayers for good health to us all!
Brenda
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On the edge (as opposed to "on edge")
I'm there, too, sitting on that edge... Recently diagnosed, I will find out next week when surgery will be. DaVinci is exciting, even the little clips that go on the sutures are way cool (OK, I'm a bit of a developmental technology nerd, having grown up in a home with a dad who was a project / research / development engineer finding answers to things, many of which are common knowledge nowadays). So many of the things we did 50 years ago, today we simply shake our heads about (and I'm sure a bunch of today's Best Practices will make us wince in 10 or 20 years).
In the '70s, a geneticist told me he figured most people who 50 years before had died of "natural causes" most likely died of cancer. We've come so far, still having folks who want to find answers -- and then better answers -- is amazing.
To health, research, treatment, development, and all the good stuff -- Jerzy
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keep it up
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