Cancer Survivability - NOT an LA thread

[Martin318is]

*******Please don't bring Lance into this thread, it has nothing to do with cycling********


Just saw this cartoon on a really good site that I go to daily: http://xkcd.com/931/

It raises some scary numbers about cancer and being a 'survivor'. Like most people, I have always thought of it as you either beat the initial cancer or you don't and if you do beat it, you then have to worry about it coming back - but thats it.

This cartoon puts it in pretty stark probability % numbers.

Has anyone seen it expressed this way before?

 

[rgmerk]

It's "glass half empty" stuff

One thing that graph doesn't mention is that 100% of us will die of something, and the majority of cancer occurs in the elderly.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

pretty confronting, but true. My aunt was 'cured' for lung cancer, only for 5-6 others to pop up the next year. Needless to say she wasn't to be cured anymore

 

[elapid]

Good cartoon to get that message across. I work in the field (veterinary surgical oncologist) and providing these statistics is important in making treatment decisions. An important consideration is that these percentages are given for a certain time period (1 year for cats and dogs, 5 or 10 years depending on the cancer for us), but this does not mean that cancers cannot recur or spread after these time periods. You always live with the potential for cancer to rear its ugly head again, but people dealing from cancer often have a different perspective on life. Many appreciate every day rather than worry about how much time they have left.