Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL
One more thing about being diagnosed with cancer: Better and better equipment is finding cancer earlier and earlier, for those who go for regular check-ups. The problem with finding cancer in a very early stage is that sometimes, if left alone, it will either go away by itself or not progress. But, often, doctors will recommend some kind of treatment.
Here are a few examples: Almost all elderly people have a few cancer cells in their thyroid but dying of thyroid cancer is rare.
Almost all eldery men have a few cancer cells in their prostate but treatment is not always advisable.
Breast cancer, if discovered at a very early stage, may either go away by itself or not progress.
If you doubt this, read, "Should I Be Tested For Cancer: Maybe Not And Here's Why."
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I can agree with everything you have posted here.....having read much that totally explains all of the above........with regard to everyone having cancer cells......that either go away on their own.......or simply never progress to anything with fatal consequences...........but, it's the harsh treatment of chemo and radiation that ultimately kill the healthy cells, sometimes leading to premature death.............of course, there also are helpful cures with some treatments. Ultimately, the decision is up to the individual.
Everyone we know who had drastic severe chemo and radiation developed terrible neurapathies (nerve damage of hands, feet, etc.) which diminished their quality of life...........the ones with Hodgkins Disease later got Leukemia from the treatment.........so all they gained was borrowed time. The ones who began at a young age with Leukemia and were successfully treated......later were diagnosed with Hodgkins...and told it was from the treatment...
One lady we know in her 50's who got the best space age treatment for liver cancer at Duke University Medical School Hospital.......supposedly is cancer free after having some type of radioactive isotopes inplanted into her liver.......great news. The bad news is they told her she now has early onset DEMENTIA caused by the treatment. Yes, they told her that. Caused by the treatment. She never had chemo....just the implants.
Those with breast cancer who only opted for lumpectomy or surgery with NO CHEMO and NO RADIATION.........are still alive. The ones who had the chemo and radiation lived a year or so and then succumbed to metasteces to the brain, adrenals, bones and various other organs........these were young women in their 40's.........who sadly left very young children.
It's a difficult decision for those put in the predicament of having to decide. Knowledge is power.....
I've also noticed those who chose NOT to have breast reconstruction after cancer surgery are still alive, but those who had the reconstructive surgery are sadly dead.
I've read that once the entire chest wall is opened for this reconstructive surgery, some rogue cancer cells can travel..........and create a return of cancer.
All of this surgery was done at a top teaching university hospital..........I read their research and they know this to be a fact. Cancer cells spread during surgery.
We do know some elderly men in their early 90s now who were told back when they were about 70 and 75 that they had prostate cancer and given the choice of treatment or doing nothing. They chose "doing nothing" and are still alive and living a good quality of life.
Besides cancer, I know young women who had been diagnosed with Sytemic Lupus in their late teens and/or early 20's and were put on heavy doses of Prednisone........which has some psychotic side effects. Back then it may have been different than what they use today......but they all died. One lady is still alive.......she went off the Prednisone herself as she did not like the "moon face" it gave her........she later was told that maybe her Lupus just "went away on its own". Go figure.
All drugs that many consider life saving.......may have alternate consequential detrimental side effects...............
I truly believe that so many cancers are caused by the environment.
We were just remembering a friend, WHO NEVER SMOKED, who died of lung cancer.........a year before she was diagnosed she decided to "rip up and scrape up" an old asbestos floor her grandpa had put into his kitchen; the home she and her husband later bought..........she wore no mask or protective clothing when she ripped up this floor, a bit each day. It creates a lot of asbestos "dust"........I'll always wonder if that contributed to her lung cancer.