Advanced cancer
Breakthroughs in cancer care improve quality of life.
Perhaps you’ve just found out for
the first time that you have advanced
cancer. Or maybe you’ve learned that
the cancer has returned, has spread,
or isn’t responding to treatment.
However you receive the news, hearing
that you have advanced cancer can
be devastating.
But it’s important to keep in
mind that having late-stage cancer can
mean something different today than
it did even ten years ago. Until recently,
people with cancer and their doctors
conceived of a cancer diagnosis in
black-and-white, win-or-lose terms.
Winning the fight against cancer
meant finding a cure, and a diagnosis
of advanced cancer — defined as a cancer
that can no longer be completely
cured — meant the fight had been lost.
But as the scientific understanding
of cancer has evolved, the goals
of cancer therapy have shifted. Many
treatments now aim to keep the cancer
from spreading and to control symptoms
and side effects. Like diabetes,
which can’t be cured but can be effectively
managed, cancer is increasingly
being considered a chronic disease.
Living better, for longer
One major victory is that researchers
have uncovered the ways that different
types of cancer spread, enabling
specific new treatments to prevent
their growth. For example, more than
half of breast cancer tumors are fueled
by the hormone estrogen, so using
hormone therapy to cut off the estrogen
supply can effectively stabilize a
tumor for years. Several such drugs
have been developed, so if a tumor
builds up resistance to one drug over
time, another can often take its place.
Today’s treatments are often
less physically traumatic than they
once were. Some drugs are able to
distinguish between rapidly multiplying
cancer cells and normal,
healthy cells, targeting malignancies
and preventing collateral damage to
your organs. Also, doctors are often
able to evaluate the genetic makeup
of a tumor and predict which drugs
are most likely to work best to treat
it — protecting your body from harm
caused by therapies that may not be
effective for you.
Even if the cancer has stopped
responding to treatment and continues
to grow, many therapies can
control the side effects and provide
you with a much better quality of life,
for longer. Your doctor may suggest a
number of different treatments, like
drugs to prevent nausea and fatigue
or radiation to lessen pain caused by a
tumor. Addressing the physical effects
of the cancer will help you maintain
your everyday routine and enjoy your
life for as long possible.
Five-year survival rates
When you learn you have cancer,
you will probably come across the
five-year survival rate — a statistic
representing the percentage of people
with the same kind of cancer who
have survived at least five years after
diagnosis. These statistics can help
evaluate the effectiveness of different
treatments. However, it’s best not to
think of them as a source of certainty
about your situation. Here are a
few things to keep in mind about
statistical survival rates:
- The rates are based on all people
with the same kind of cancer, no
matter their age, previous health
problems, whether they received
adequate treatment, or refused
treatment altogether.
- Five years isn’t a magic number. In
some cancers surviving for five years
is a landmark, while in others, like
breast cancer, larger periods of time
are required to predict effectiveness
of treatment.
- The rates are an average that
includes people who may have
outlived the survival rate by many
years and others who may have
survived a very short time.
- The rates measure the outcomes
of people who were
diagnosed over
five years ago — so it
doesn’t reflect changes
in treatment that you
will benefit from today.
- Survival rates don’t
measure quality of life.
The bottom line is that a
statistic can’t tell you what’s
going to happen in your case.
No matter what the survival rate,
many people with advanced cancer
have enjoyed an excellent quality of
life for many years after diagnosis.