Re: need advice on my father's lung cancer
- From: "Steph" <steph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:48:10 GMT
"J W" <jonboy42@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:29710-44DDE30D-200@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What about treatment for quality of life? You haven't told ud if he has
any symptoms. If he doesn't, no treatment may be the best treatment. If
he's got pain, cough, or coughing up blood, radiotherapy will usually
improve those symptoms with little or no side-effects. Where are you
getting your misconceptions from?
Right now he is coughing a lot and having quite a time with his
breathing, especially on hot days. I'm getting my misconceptions
firsthand from knowing people who have died from their cancers while
taking radiation, people who have been burned badly by it and made
quite ill from it. That is why I was asking if the side effects were
worth the risk for less than a 10% chance of a five year survival ( 10%
was straight from doctors mouth). If the end result is death no matter
what, I wouldn't want to be responsible for subjecting him to
uneccessary pain by advising him to take the radiation.
Let me say it again
There is no treatment, surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, which has an
impact on survival for patients with advanced lung cancer, so that would not
be the reason to treat.
Some courses of radiation for some patients can have some side-effects, but
most patients getting radiation for palliation (ie symptom improvement) get
no or very mild side-effects.
The indication for treatment in your dad's case would be quality of life
nothing else. A few fractions of very simple radiation has about a 70%
chance of improving symptoms like cough, with little or no side-effects.
It's a no brainer.
.
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