That's a question Mom never asked, although she really wanted to know the answer. Sadly, the prognosis for Mom's lung cancer was six to eight months from diagnosis, even with chemotherapy treatment, and that hasn't changed in over twenty years. It's not through lack of trying to find better treatments for small cell lung cancer, it's simply that by the time it has been diagnosed, it has often spread beyond the lungs and chest cavity and therefore surgery is not an option.
A report this morning shouts the headline that median cancer survival has increased to six years over the last forty years. That means that roughly half of all cancer sufferers will survive for six years after diagnosis. Is this worth shouting about? Some people will live longer than this and die of something other than cancer, but some people will not live past the first year following diagnosis. It's a cruel lottery.
Ellie Jeffery has updated her blog today and she is starting a new chemotherapy drug to help her fight off secondary breast cancer which has spread to her brain. Ellie is twenty-eight years old. The statistics for this drug, eribulin, show a life expectancy of 13.1 months compared to 10.6 months on an established drug.
Keep Ellie in your thoughts.