CancerCompass message board discussion started by Dean in Georgia on 11/8/2005 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,3440,0.htm Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ I would like to hear from anyone whose family/friend was diganoised with Cancer and doing fairly well, then passes away with something other than cancer. How common? Dean in Georgia Tue, 08 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT Dean This is a common problem in Oncology. Many chemotherapy drugs work by destroying rapidly growing cells like cancer cells. However, other cells also grow fast like the blood cells in the bone marrow. When these cells are destroyed the white blood cells that fight infections are damaged. This can lead to infections that are very hard to cure. Bone marrow transplants are another treatment that has a high mortality rate. One day we may be better able to kill cancer cells and not harm normal cells. Oncrx Wed, 09 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT