Reassurance

PhillieG said:

Hatshepsut
That was a very good article Hatshepsut. It's how I've come to terms with my diagnosis. While there is a slight chance I will be cured, more than likely I will live with this as a chronic disease. I've felt from the start that I have been riding the crest of a wave of new technology. That works for me.
-phil

PhillieG said:

I have my days
Some days someone can say to me "nice day" and I'll respond with a hearty "F.U.". This crap is frustrating as hell, it's not like we all have all the time in the world here. I did do a Google but it's like reading Chinese to me. Also I'm all caught up in Michael Mania today and I can't think straight...NOT. I don't know if this is the same or similar thing John, but there was a segment on 60 minutes a year or so ago about a guy who had this machine that used radio waves to destroy cancer cells with little collateral damage.

Found it, The Kanzius Machine. You've mentioned this before. I guess they are different things.
http://cnettv.cnet.com/60-minutes-kanzius-machine-cancer-cure/9742-1_53-50004120.html

People talk about things like Area 51 and aliens, and that they (pharmaceutical companies) are sitting on a cancer cure but they can make more $$ by "treating" it so they won't release it. I want to believe that it is not true, but if it is I can imagine a lynch mob going to them and making sure they won't have to worry about getting cancer...

You research the hell out of things John, I know I appreciate it and I think everyone else does too on this site.

Hatshepsut said:

John:

I’m puzzled that the article I posted made you (or anyone) “sick,” but so be it. You are entitled to your opinion and I genuinely believe that it is never a bad thing to argue forcefully for a cure.

Nevertheless, I stand unequivocally by what I said in my previous post about the NY Times article I posted (see above). I’ll even say it again: I find it reassuring (and, yes, even uplifting) to know that people stricken with cancer have increasingly numerous and effective treatment options that prolong their lives and improve the quality of their lives. In fact, I think people should stand on rooftops and shout that cancer is no longer the so-called “death sentence” it once was. I know what a difference it would have made in my life to know the promising news about cancer treatment three years ago when my husband was first diagnosed with stage three (later stage four) colon cancer.

Let me be clear: I do understand the difference (personal and financial) between curing cancer and simply developing treatments that prolong life without curing the underlying disease. I am a realist. My life has been devastated by my husband’s illness as I suspect your life has been devastated by your cancer diagnosis. Every person on this board understands the qualitative difference between treatment and cure.

The miserable and unavoidable truth, however, is that we don’t have an available or affordable cure for cancer at this point in time.

We may or may not agree on the reasons for a failure to find a cure.

Perhaps we don’t have a cure because of our dysfunctional pharmaceutical industry. (It might surprise you but my opinion of BigPharma may be even more negative than your opinion.) Perhaps we don’t have a cure because our health paradigm focuses upon chemical cures instead of natural foods and a healthy lifestyle. Perhaps there is no cure because of human greed (pharmaceutical companies and otherwise). (I have some pretty strong opinions about human greed, too.) And, perhaps it is because no talented and altruistic scientist has yet come up with a real cure.

It is what it is.

We simply don’t have a cure (or, more correctly, cures, since cancer is not a disease but rather many diseases.)

Nevertheless, I am personally reassured by the knowledge that there are an increasing number of successful treatment options for cancer victims because, until we do have a cure, I want my husband (and you and Phil and Kimby and Kim and everyone else with this awful disease) to survive. True, some may be making unconscionable amounts of money by keeping people alive rather than curing them. Those same interests may well be focusing their lobbying efforts on funding research into profitable life-prolonging treatments rather than less-profitable cures. Trust me, the excessive profit realized by the “business” of suffering sickens me, too.

I do understand your point that, absent strong motivation, the public might be lulled into complacency by reassuring arguments that cancer has simply become a controllable “chronic” disease. That is a danger, but I believe anyone who has ever had a family member or close friend suffer with cancer (that is just about everyone, I think) knows that we must have a cure. Even reduced to the status of a chronic disease, the toll cancer treatment takes on sufferers and their families is fearsome. For their mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and for themselves, people do understand what (and how awful) cancer continues to be and how important it is to find a cure. Just say the word “chemotherapy” to your friends and watch their reaction. People know.

The problem is the self-serving politicians who do what lobbyists demand rather than what the people need. That makes me sick.

I join you in believing that our focus should be upon finding a cure for cancer. I join you in condemning what may well be a profit-driven system that is slowing our progress toward a cure. But until we do have that cure, I know that I want there to be treatments that lengthen people’s lives and improve the quality of their lives.


We all (cancer victims and their families) suffer alike and together.

Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut said:

John:

I’m puzzled that the article I posted made you (or anyone) “sick,” but so be it. You are entitled to your opinion and I genuinely believe that it is never a bad thing to argue forcefully for a cure.

Nevertheless, I stand unequivocally by what I said in my previous post about the NY Times article I posted (see above). I’ll even say it again: I find it reassuring (and, yes, even uplifting) to know that people stricken with cancer have increasingly numerous and effective treatment options that prolong their lives and improve the quality of their lives. In fact, I think people should stand on rooftops and shout that cancer is no longer the so-called “death sentence” it once was. I know what a difference it would have made in my life to know the promising news about cancer treatment three years ago when my husband was first diagnosed with stage three (later stage four) colon cancer.

Let me be clear: I do understand the difference (personal and financial) between curing cancer and simply developing treatments that prolong life without curing the underlying disease. I am a realist. My life has been devastated by my husband’s illness as I suspect your life has been devastated by your cancer diagnosis. Every person on this board understands the qualitative difference between treatment and cure.

The miserable and unavoidable truth, however, is that we don’t have an available or affordable cure for cancer at this point in time.

We may or may not agree on the reasons for a failure to find a cure.

Perhaps we don’t have a cure because of our dysfunctional pharmaceutical industry. (It might surprise you but my opinion of BigPharma may be even more negative than your opinion.) Perhaps we don’t have a cure because our health paradigm focuses upon chemical cures instead of natural foods and a healthy lifestyle. Perhaps there is no cure because of human greed (pharmaceutical companies and otherwise). (I have some pretty strong opinions about human greed, too.) And, perhaps it is because no talented and altruistic scientist has yet come up with a real cure.

It is what it is.

We simply don’t have a cure (or, more correctly, cures, since cancer is not a disease but rather many diseases.)

Nevertheless, I am personally reassured by the knowledge that there are an increasing number of successful treatment options for cancer victims because, until we do have a cure, I want my husband (and you and Phil and Kimby and Kim and everyone else with this awful disease) to survive. True, some may be making unconscionable amounts of money by keeping people alive rather than curing them. Those same interests may well be focusing their lobbying efforts on funding research into profitable life-prolonging treatments rather than less-profitable cures. Trust me, the excessive profit realized by the “business” of suffering sickens me, too.

I do understand your point that, absent strong motivation, the public might be lulled into complacency by reassuring arguments that cancer has simply become a controllable “chronic” disease. That is a danger, but I believe anyone who has ever had a family member or close friend suffer with cancer (that is just about everyone, I think) knows that we must have a cure. Even reduced to the status of a chronic disease, the toll cancer treatment takes on sufferers and their families is fearsome. For their mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and for themselves, people do understand what (and how awful) cancer continues to be and how important it is to find a cure. Just say the word “chemotherapy” to your friends and watch their reaction. People know.

The problem is the self-serving politicians who do what lobbyists demand rather than what the people need. That makes me sick.

I join you in believing that our focus should be upon finding a cure for cancer. I join you in condemning what may well be a profit-driven system that is slowing our progress toward a cure. But until we do have that cure, I know that I want there to be treatments that lengthen people’s lives and improve the quality of their lives.


We all (cancer victims and their families) suffer alike and together.

Hatshepsut

PhillieG said:

Great post (again)
There are so many factors involved as you pointed out. I feel lucky to been given time to stay ahead of my disease and hopefully be cured one day. In any event, if the drugs that were developed and came out during my initial dx were not available, I'd be using a Ouija board now to communicate instead of the internet.
-p