A number of people I know are undergoing the trial of trying to survive cancer. I am investigating the effectiveness of the treatments for cancer that are routinely prescribed by doctors. One particular website that I came across listed the various cancers and the associated survival rates when treated with surgery/chemotherapy/radiation.
So far the rates of cure are not very promising. They mostly seem to be around 2% with cancers like Hodgkins Lymphoma being one of the few above 38%. That doesn't appear very good seeing that these treatments are often very expensive and can have side-effects that keep the patient gravely ill. If one was to only live another year or so, then one may want that year to be worthwhile and not one of continual illness. Some medical peoples views are that if a cancer sufferer did nothing, their life expectancy would be the same as those on the conventional treatments. Is this true? Can anyone comment on this?

Why would anyone put themselves through any of these toxic procedures if the chances of defeating the cancer was so low?

It is all about the money. Conventional treatments do work on testicular cancer and a couple rare cancers with high success rates, but for the common cancers, they can now do ok with breast cancer and some leukemias but with lung or pancreatic, you are screwed big time. Colon is a crap shoot, if they catch it early enough, you will probably be ok, but once the cancer is stage 3 you basically should not even consider western medicine.

As soon as a person in diagnosed with cancer, that person is considered a write-off and the "treatments" are only to extract as much money as they can before the patient dies.
The health care industry should be called the disease care industry. They have no interest in curing anyone of anything. Profit is the motive.

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Doctors give drugs of which they know little,
into bodies, of which they know less,
for diseases of which they know nothing at all.
Voltaire

Thanks for that 'athletic dept'. On a radio show where I live, they were bringing up the subject of the refusal to let people pass away when the only way to prolong life was to put them on life support. It was proposed that the obstruction was more likely due to the huge amounts of money that the medical system could make by implementing these procedures rather than any magnanomous effort to prolong or save a life.
After all, if you die you won't need the money anyway, so, they might as well have it!
A little blunt, but that's the way it seems to be.

If a person is on life support only to stay alive only with misery and no chance of getting better they should be referred to hospice to advocate for them. Any family member can call in hospice for an evaluation. Doctors should know better. Most times when life support is initiated like this it is because the family does not want to give up or let go. Most of the time its the family. Only once in a while the patient. Most people observing from the outside have no clue as to what is really going on so statements like "just doing it to milk them for the money is often a conclusion" that comes up.

I have several friends who have done quite well after conventional cancer treatment. I have others who are now long dead. It does seem like a crap shoot as the conventional medical system refuses to give any stats that really mean anything. 5 year survival rate is their goal for they know that they can rarely cure anything. My sister in law is now a 7 year survivor of breast cancer, yet the cancer keeps spreading throughout her body. Her quality of life is good and she hikes daily. The cancer is now in her bones and I suspect someday we will find her on a hiking trail with a broken hip or leg. Her chemo treatments are $15,000 per IV that she gets about 4 to 6 times a year, sometimes more. Medicare (you and me) pays.

Profit is much of the motive yet between the pharmaceutical industry and the patient stands a team of physicians and nurses who largely do have compassion and concern. They do what they can with what they are given, regardless of how misguided the system is.

I have another friend into his 3rd year of prostate cancer. His psa is now normal with the treatment he is getting. Sorry, I dont know exactly what that is but is has to do with receiving estrogens.. His wife has melanoma. They pluck tumors from her several times a year. She will likely be the first to go. They wine and dine like there is no tormorrw and they are exceedingly positive and they love their docs. I dont even say a word. They walk a delicate line of balance in their emotional, mental and spiritual state which is likely what is keeping them going.

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