I hate cancer!
 Well.......................Ron did ask for more posts.  |
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| I agree! |
| No argument from me either....I lost my dad to cancer when he was 69, and a good friend in her 50's. Another friend has had breast cancer - twice!  |
| I lost my paternal grandmother to bladder cancer around 1995, my mother in law to breast cancer in 1996 and my mother to ovarian cancer in 2003. My dog Jake had a testicular Sertoli tumor cut out of him I think in 2001, my dad had a large precancerous polyp removed from his colon a couple of years ago. Yeah, cancer sucks. |
| I'm not fond of it either. In late 2009 I was diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer--DCIS. There's debate in the medical lit as to whether it is a true cancer. I had 2 lumpectomies and a course of radiation. It's over and it better not come back. |
| Cancer MORE THAN SUCKS!!!! I lost my mom to cancer or maybe the meds caused the stroke that killed her. I believe there is a cancer cure out there but it would not be benificial to the drug companies to make it available because financially it would cut into their profits. Here's to a cure!  No one should ever have to suffer this disease. (well, maybe the terriorists  ) Ok, God will get me for that one too.Nancy |
| My dad died of lung cancer at the age of 67. Six of his siblings also died of lung cancer - adenocarcinoma. My sister is a breast cancer survivor of 5 years, at the age of 45. My mom lost two siblings to pancreatic cancer, and one has survived colon cancer. I hate cancer, too! Laurie and Oscar |
| I am with you guys on this one. I lost my father to cancer when he was only 63. He had worked so hard all of his life to feed his six kids and had barely retired when he died. The only plus side of cancer is that you get to spend time with palliative care nurses, who, in my opinion, are as close to angels on earth as you can get. |
When my youngest brother was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1980 (on his 22nd birthday  ), they thought he wouldn't live. He did, and he is cancer free now. In 1990, my second oldest brother was diagnosed with testicular cancer at age 38. Caught early, and cured. In 1995, my father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins' related lymphoma. We lost him in just under 5 weeks. This year, my second oldest brother was diagnosed again, this time with esophageal cancer. They say they got it all, but he very nearly died in the process (and thanks again to all the forum members who posted their healing thoughts and good wishes when I posted in July. It meant and means a lot to me! ) Your post caught my eye, because my niece (his younger daughter) posted a blog entry titled "Cancer Sucks" (http://sensibletwenties.blogspot.com/20 ... chive.html)Yeah, cancer sucks. Big time. |
| I hate Cancer too. My Mom died of cancer in August 2001 at the age of 85. Her cancer started in her bladder 6 yrs before and eventually was everywhere..I was alone in the hospital room with her when they gave her the bad news the cancer was in her bones. She was a nurse, and knew what that meant..so did I. My brother has had cancer removed from his skin a number of times. I had a cousin who died of cancer at the young age of 35...so many more, so sad to think about. |
| yeah, i hate cancer..a LOT! 4 year survivor of breast cancer...it was OES friends that got me thru it....6 rounds of chemo, 1 mastectomy and reconstruction and 6 reconstruction on my real one... Lets not forget Jean who lost her battle with breast cancer...she was a wonderful sheepie mom and an inspiration to me. |
| There seems to be more people out there that have unfortunately been touched by cancer in some way, shape or form, than not. I have connections also. My grandmother died from metastic melanoma (83), my mom died from lung cancer (70). My dad is a lymphoma survivor (77). My sister has fought breast cancer (50). I lost a dear friend, (mayor of our town, 52) from esophageal cancer. My father in law survived cancer on his tongue. Just to name a few close connections. Seems the list never ends. Cancer does suck. I offer strength to anyone fighting it, or anyone who is helping someone close to them fight it. We can never do enough! |
| My father's mother died of breast cancer in 1941, leaving behind a husband and two sons. Her struggle with her health was pretty much my father's entire childhood, up until her death. Times being what they were, and my grandfather being a small time farmer, first generation here in the U.S., having had to drop out of school when his father died, so that he could support his mother and siblings--well, let's just say that life was very, very, very tough. Her brother died of lung cancer and COPD. This did not deter my father from smoking. He died from COPD, which is not cancer, but with the complication of leukemia, which is. His widow is a survivor of cancer of the bladder but as she continues to smoke, I am not confident she will remain cancer free. My husband's dentist found a suspicious spot on his tongue during a routine dental check up. The pre-cancerous lesion was removed. With no risk factors (he's never used any tobacco products in any form), with close monitoring, he should be fine. My brother in law (not related to my husband) was slightly less fortunate: the lump in his neck was cancer, having originated on his tongue. Like my husband, he never used tobacco, which is the single biggest cause of all oral cancers. He is currently cancer free. My father in law is being treated for prostate cancer, which is being controlled with radioactive seeds. My mother in law has had numerous skin cancers removed. My best friend's husband has had numerous skin cancers removed; the last one was melanoma, much, much more serious and potentially deadly. He is being closely monitored. My husband's prostate cancer was detected during a routine physical. His PSA was quite low, but the doctor thought that the prostate seemed a little bit--not right upon the dreaded digital rectal exam. Consult with a urologist, followed by a biopsy (don't ask how it was taken) showed cancer with a Gleason score of 6, which was increased to a 7 after surgery. My husband is cancer free for 2 years. 26 years ago, when I was pregnant with our youngest son, the son of dear friends, Bobby, who was born the same summer as our second son, was diagnosed with Burkitts lymphoma, a childhood cancer. Burkitt's has a good survival rate: about 85% of children survive. But Bobby was young--just short of 3 years old, and small for his age. He died 2 days after our son was born. This was the hardest one, and the hardest funeral I ever went to. I am a biologist and have spent some time studying cancer and it's biology. I don't hate cancer nor do I fear it. To me, cancer is not something to be hated or feared, but to be studied, and understood so that we can better learn how to avoid it, and how to treat it when prevention does not work. Fear and hatred make us weaker, diminish us. Knowledge and understanding make us stronger and more capable, more resourceful, more powerful. I understand as well as someone who has been touched by cancer only through those she loves but has not been affected--yet! how angry it can make you to suddenly have to deal with a disease that has the power to disrupt lives and to take them. I know how strong and brave and steadfast you must be in order to overcome cancer. Use your strength, your courage, your resolve, to learn everything you can about your disease if you have it so that you can be your own best advocate. And if you don't have it, learn everything you can to help prevent you from getting it. |
| Of all things to share commonality with fellow sheepie lovers, I'm sorry it has to be this. I couldn't believe all of the similar situations we all have encountered. I'm so glad for your surviving loved ones and hope to keep my loved ones in the survivor's corner. The ones that are still here and fighting, that is. dogmom wrote: I believe there is a cancer cure out there but it would not be benificial to the drug companies to make it available because financially it would cut into their profits. Here's to a cure! No one should ever have to suffer this disease. Nancy I wonder about this myself. I read that 40% of our economy is from the medical industry. tgir wrote: I am a biologist and have spent some time studying cancer and it's biology. I don't hate cancer nor do I fear it. To me, cancer is not something to be hated or feared, but to be studied, and understood so that we can better learn how to avoid it, and how to treat it when prevention does not work. Fear and hatred make us weaker, diminish us. Knowledge and understanding make us stronger and more capable, more resourceful, more powerful. I understand as well as someone who has been touched by cancer only through those she loves but has not been affected--yet! how angry it can make you to suddenly have to deal with a disease that has the power to disrupt lives and to take them. tgir from a scientific viewpoint would you be willing to offer some insight or additional info? Besides any monetary aspect for not finding a cure. Why do you think we don't have more cures and more progress in this particular disease? Saw a great movie "Forks Over Knives" regarding using a plant based diet in the prevention of cancer. |
Darcy wrote: Lets not forget Jean who lost her battle with breast cancer...she was a wonderful sheepie mom and an inspiration to me. Amen, to that. And glad you're still around my friend! |
| First of all: I am not a doctor or a nurse. I work in a medical lab. I am hoping to be able to go back to school and specifically work in the field of cancer biology. But for now, I am a tech in a medical lab. I have taken coursework in the cancer of biology, cell biology, and molecular biology. But for now: no advanced degrees. I think it's important to understand what cancer is and is not. First of all, cancer is not one disease, and is not caused by one single thing. Some cancers, perhaps most cancers, are related to environmental causes, including (from a science point of view) diet and lifestyle. Some cancers are caused by viruses. HPV is the one that is most in the news today. But keep in mind that there are about 100 types of HPV and not all cause cancer. Some cancers have a basis in inherited genes. In fact, all cancers are genetic, in that the genetic structure of formally normal cells has undergone changes that lead to the cell becoming cancer. More about that later. Two kinds of cancer we know have an inherited genetic component are some breast cancers and some colon cancers. The origins of some cancers are unknown at this time. Here's a pretty decent link about the biology of cancer, if you are interested: http://www.insidecancer.org/ It's pretty well laid out (but loads slow on my computer) and mostly in easy to understand language. They say it so well that I won't go into a lot of details. OK, that's not really true: I tend to have really long posts --sorry about that--and you can skip the rest of this post and go straight to the link if you like or continue and read my long post. Below, I am attempting to explain some basics about cancer and the challenges of treating it, and diagnosing it and preventing it. Be warned: I kind of beat up on the tobacco industry just because it's something everyone is really familiar with. But, in a nutshell: All cancers begin as normal cells within our bodies. Something happens to alter the DNA structure of individual cells that cause them to change. 1. Cancer cells de-differentiate. That is, they begin to lose their specialized nature. The cells which line your colon, for example, are different than the cells that line your esophagus, or your arteries, and so on. Normal cells look like they are supposed to look for the job they have evolved to do. They are very specialized, or differentiated. When they divide to make more of themselves, they make more cells that look just like them and do the same job. NOTE: We hear a lot about stem cells. These are cells which are not differentiated: they can potentially develop into many different kinds of cells. Right now, in your body you have bone marrow which is comprised of a kind of stem cell. But cancer cells no longer are as specialized. Cancer cells look (and act) less and less like the cells they originated from as the cancer progresses. 2. Normal cells grow at certain rates and divide at certain rates. Over time, cells begin to lose their ability to regenerate. They (we) get old. Cancer cells become immortal. They never lose their ability to generate more copies of themselves. Furthermore, as cells become more cancerous, they deviate from the norm more and more and the daughter cells they produce will look less and less like the original cell. 3. Normal cells stay in one place (well, except for blood cells but they are supposed to move through your veins and arteries). Cancer cells don't stay put: they migrate. This is why we have metastasis in cancer: cancer that originates in one part of your body but starts growing elsewhere. For example: If breast cancer did not metastasize, no one would die of breast cancer: it could be surgically removed, either just the tumor or the whole breast. In fact, that's a primary treatment for many breast cancers. But surgery is often followed up with chemo or radiation: to eliminate any cancer cells that are lurking elsewhere. 4. Normal cells are good neighbors: they mind their own business, do their own jobs and don't invade other cells and other tissues. Cancer cells do invade other tissues, and cause tissue death in healthy tissues. 5. Cancer cells which become tumors (not all tumors are cancerous) develop their own vascular system to get the nutrients they need to grow and multiply. They are pretty good at their own survival, at the expense of the rest of the body. 6. Your body doesn't detect the cancer cells as invaders the way it would bacteria, or a virus, or even a transplanted organ, because the cells still look a lot like their original selves, so your body's immune system isn't signaled to attack/destroy. Now, your body does have mechanisms to repair DNA damage to cells and it does just that all the time. But sometimes, the damage is too great or too pervasive and your body isn't able to keep up with the repairs. It is important to realize that the DNA damage occurs locally, within just the affected cells which are on their way to become cancer. So, if you have a skin cancer, and they do a genetic analysis from just that lesion, there will be differences in the DNA from the cancer cells vs if they did a DNA analysis of cells from a healthy area of your skin, or any other area of your body. Why is there no cure? Well, there are cures, at least for some cancers and for some individuals. But cancer isn't just one thing. And there is no one reason that people get cancer. Many, perhaps most, cancers are related to environmental factors or lifestyle factors. How long did it take the tobacco industry to take any responsibility for causing lung and oral cancers? How many people continue to smoke or use tobacco even though it puts them at higher risk for cancer? How many people refuse to believe that their smoking will cause them (or their family) to get cancer? Way too many. And that's just tobacco. There's a lot of resistance to tighter environmental regulations because it's thought to be bad for business or only to save some obscure species of frog or plant or whatever. There are real consequences to having pollutants in our air, water, soil, food chain and some of those consequences are for our own health. And here's another problem. If I smoked a cigarette and immediately got lung cancer, it would be pretty easy to tie my lung cancer to the cigarette. And it would be pretty easy to say that cigarettes are dangerous products and should be banned from production. But most cancers take many years to develop and it isn't always easy to trace the cancer to the origins. And not everybody gets cancer from smoking. We don't know exactly how much smoking/duration of tobacco use is ok because we are all different in how we respond to that particular challenge to our bodies. We don't know why some people get lung cancer from smoking and others do not. And not all lung cancer is because of tobacco. We also know that a lot of cancers are linked to lifestyle choices (aside from tobacco use). We all know that we would be healthier if we maintained our ideal weight, got enough sleep and exercise, ate a low fat diet that was mostly plant based. Avoided too much sun and wore sunscreen, drank only in moderation. managed our stress well. That sort of thing. OK: How many of us do that? Hey, I have never used tobacco (but grew up with parents who smoked), drink very little, eat mostly a plant based diet--and most of my food is home cooked, not prepackaged or processed-- but I need to lose a lot of weight, don't get enough exercise or sleep. Stress can be significant from time to time. When I walk around, I see a lot of people who look like me: need to lose some weight, get some more exercise, more sleep, less stress. We know that some cancers are caused by viruses. In the news these days is the HPV virus. There are more than 100 kinds of HPV virus, only a small number of which are known to cause cancer, most notably cervical cancer in women, but also some other cancers. The pre-cancerous lesion on my husband's tongue was thought to be caused by HPV. He's never used tobacco in any form in his life and has no other risk factors. You would think that if we developed a vaccine that could prevent this type of cancer, we'd all be thrilled to vaccinate our children, right? Think of all the controversy behind just that vaccine. Why is it so hard to cure cancer? Well, it's not all in the same place, doesn't all behave in the same way, and it's found at different stages of disease. And different patients respond differently to different treatment. My husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer in a very early stage. He chose surgery to remove his prostate. He is considered cured but will be monitored for life. They biopsied lymph nodes to see if there were any evidence of cancer elsewhere and he got a clean bill of health, so chemo is not necessary nor are hormone treatments. These are often part of the treatment for prostate cancer. There are treatment options besides surgery. My father in law was diagnosed with prostate cancer when he was in his 70's. He chose to be treated with radioactive seeds, which have worked well until recently. He is now having issues related to the radiation. Right now, cancer treatments have focused on a few strategies: 1. Surgery. Just cut it out. Sometimes that is a great strategy and provides a definitive cure. Sometimes, you cannot perform surgery and sometimes the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, meaning you also need to look at other treatments. 2. Radiation: kills rapidly dividing cells (cancer cells divide at a much higher rate than normal cells, remember) but also rapidly dividing cells that make your hair grow, in the lining of your stomach, etc. Radiation is usually focused in one area to avoid damage to other tissues. 3. Chemotherapy. Chemo again targets rapidly dividing cells, including cancer cells but also including normal body cells which also divide rapidly. If the chemo is too strong, the patient can become very ill and even die from the treatment. If the chemo isn't strong enough, some of the cancer cells survive and grow, producing more cells which are resistant to that form of chemo. More cancer develops and this time, it's harder to kill. 4. Hormone based treatments are used for cancers that we know respond to hormones for their growth. Not all cancers do, so it's only a strategy that's used for some cancers. 5. Scientists are beginning to develop vaccines they hope will prevent recurrences of cancer in patients who have already had some kinds of cancer. For example, Mayo Clinic is beginning trials for vaccines which they hope will prevent a recurrence of cancer in patients who have had breast cancer and ovarian cancer. There is a vaccine to prevent prostate cancer in the pipelines. 6. More and more, doctors are looking to the genetics of the cancer cells from individual patients to determine treatment options. The hope is to be able to exploit the characteristics of particular cancer cells from individual patients to decide what treatment would work best. Some scientists hope to be able to use cancer cells from individual patients to create a vaccine that is tailor made for that patient. I think this has a lot of promise. Why aren't there more and better drugs to treat cancer? I'm on board with you there, but I also know some of the challenges. Money is one of them. Research and development is very, very expensive and if a drug is useful for only a small portion of the population, drug companies won't make any money from the treatment. Also, it takes a long time to get a drug ready for human trials and the individuals who are chosen for the first round of trials are the sickest: they aren't likely to survive anyway. If the drug helps then, the researchers know they have a promising anti-cancer treatment. If the drug doesn't help anyone, that's a lot of time and money 'wasted' (I don't think it's wasted) from a investment/profit standpoint. And even after a drug is proven to be effective and safe, once it's put into the market, it is given to a more diverse set of patients and it will potentially be less effective, over all. I don't believe that anyone is sitting on a cure for cancer. For one thing, there simply will never be one cure for cancer. For another, there would be a lot of glory (and money ) to anyone who could come up with a definitive cure. A lot. As far as medical costs: I recently read that only about 20% of our medical dollars go to the doctor and his/her practice. Well, I don't know if anyone has made it to the end of this long, long post or if anyone is still awake. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I will try to answer, try to be brief and try to point you in the right direction for better information. I haven't gone back and proof-read anything so there may be typos, sentence fragments, bad grammar, etc. Sorry about that. |
| bravo tgir, very informative and factual. two years ago i met an engineer's wife who had childhood cancer. she is cancer free now in her thirties with two children. she now is a scientist with merck and has many patents for cancer drugs and she informed me of extreme improvements in childhood cancer survival rates. just thought i'd share some uplifting news. |
| Thanks TGIR that was indeed very informative and helpful to me! Guest always appreciate uplifting news!  |
| I was an Oncology Certified Nurse for years - one of only 15,000 worldwide. This required a specialized test after I had worked for years in oncology. Every Friday morning, our company had a 2 hour nurse's meeting during which we learned about the latest and greatest changes. It made the test a breeze. tgir has the basics on cancer down. Did you know that it takes a million cells to form a mass large enough to show up on Xray or scans? If the cancer is in the shape of a papertowel, think about how hard it would be to see if was flat, just covering an organ. But it is much easier to see if it is wadded up. And a million cells is much smaller than a papertowel. I get so angry when I hear that the medical profession is suppressing the cure for cancer. Most of people in oncology have lost a loved one to cancer - to say that we are in it for the money is a huge insult. There will always be people developing cancer, so there will always be a need for the cure. The doctor I worked for cared deeply about his patients, but his job is to make unemotional decisions. Some of them are so hard. My patients were my friends - and I lost too many of them. I left oncology when one of our 18 year old leukemia patients made it through 18 months of intensive chemo, only to die at that place in Houston during a transplant. My father died from renal cell cancer that had spread to both kidneys and every bone in his body by the time it was discovered. One of my aunts died from pancreatic cancer. One of my uncles died from prostate cancer. Yesterday, one of my good friends died from breast cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer over 15 years ago. She fought a long, brave battle. |
Mom of 3 wrote: I was an Oncology Certified Nurse for years - one of only 15,000 worldwide. This required a specialized test after I had worked for years in oncology. Every Friday morning, our company had a 2 hour nurse's meeting during which we learned about the latest and greatest changes. It made the test a breeze. tgir has the basics on cancer down. Did you know that it takes a million cells to form a mass large enough to show up on Xray or scans? If the cancer is in the shape of a papertowel, think about how hard it would be to see if was flat, just covering an organ. But it is much easier to see if it is wadded up. And a million cells is much smaller than a papertowel. I get so angry when I hear that the medical profession is suppressing the cure for cancer. Most of people in oncology have lost a loved one to cancer - to say that we are in it for the money is a huge insult. There will always be people developing cancer, so there will always be a need for the cure. The doctor I worked for cared deeply about his patients, but his job is to make unemotional decisions. Some of them are so hard. My patients were my friends - and I lost too many of them. I left oncology when one of our 18 year old leukemia patients made it through 18 months of intensive chemo, only to die at that place in Houston during a transplant. My father died from renal cell cancer that had spread to both kidneys and every bone in his body by the time it was discovered. One of my aunts died from pancreatic cancer. One of my uncles died from prostate cancer. Yesterday, one of my good friends died from breast cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer over 15 years ago. She fought a long, brave battle. My condolences on the loss of your good friend! The papertowel analogy is a helpful tool. I have no doubt that the caregivers in the medical industry deeply care for their patients and want to see them well. When you hear about the medical industry suppressing a cure, to me I had thought that's meant towards the perception that pharmaceutical companies profit from selling drugs that maintain people's illness and don't cure their illnesses. This has made me think of the illnesses that have been cured, I'm sure there are many but I just can't think of any is all and is beside the point. It's much more prevalent to hear about the bad things of course and easier to think of all the illnesses and diseases that are maintained by meds and maybe life is sustained and improved but never cured. Diabetes for one. Is there more money in maintenance, prevention or a cure? To be fair, I'm sure there are caring people in the pharmaceutical industry as well. But when profits are a factor I just hope that cures are more profitable than maintenance. My cousin is actually a scientist and is working at a company that's developed a new treatment for prostate cancer. She lost her Mom to cancer and that was instrumental in her choosing her profession. I certainly don't have any answers but am trying to learn and to see the issue from the big picture and not offend or hurt anyone. I was venting that day because I was just tired of the toll that cancer has taken on those I love during my entire lifetime! |
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