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henshaw111 t1_ixv4kpj wrote

Reply to comment by Chemical-Hot in Brain cancer vaccine succeeds at prolonging survival in Phase 3 trial by Sorin61

Aside from getting valuable time with their families, doom and gloom aside, anyone with cancer - or any life limiting condition, I suspect - there is always hope that there’s something ‘just around the corner’. A few people I know have benefitted from treatment that was in its early days and not widely available, IIRC, and treatment nowadays appears to be far less brutal than in the days of chemotherapy in the 70s, 80s and earlier when my father (brain tumour, actually), one of his brothers, and probably the majority of the rest of his siblings and several family friends were diagnosed with cancers of various sorts.

Folks can always refuse treatment, and some do.

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addiktion t1_ixvduns wrote

My wife's mother refused treatment and surgery wasnt really an option. She couldn't really talk with us as her speech was greatly impaired and felt like there was no point spending several months in that state given speech was one of her gifts in life.

I'm sure if she caught it sooner and something like this was available that could prolong the good parts of quality of life it would have been a different story.

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Chemical-Hot t1_ixv6jdb wrote

Not every case is the same but these “ advances” kept my stepdad alive much longer and he was in terrible pain and in and out of hospitals the last year of his life. He got more time, more pain and a brutal exit from this world.

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henshaw111 t1_ixvaazm wrote

‘Not the same’ is exactly the point, which is why cynicism isn’t helpful. In the earlier days of chemotherapy it was pretty much the case if the cancer didn’t get you, the chemo did - and the side effects were pretty unpleasant. Palliative care has inevitably improved over the decades. With a lot of cancers, people eventually run out of road and the last several months or more can be pretty shitty. At the moment I’ve a couple of friends, one with stage 3 bowel cancer, another with prostate cancer. Both have metastasised, they’re into the realm of whack-a-mole, hope, and not heading out of the door just yet.

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