Very long term survival? Dare I dream? (node, chemotherapy, treatment)
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Back in the Fall of 2019, I received chemo-radiation with “curative intent” for stage IIIb non-small cell lung cancer. Now, 2 years and 7 months after the end of treatment, I just had another set of “all clear” scans— the 9th in a row! Yay!
It looks like I might up being “cured.” I put “cured” in quotes, because all you need to do is survive 5 years beyond the end of treatment to lay claim to this status. But honestly, for someone in her 50s in a family where the women routinely survive into their late 80s and 90s, five years seems a little like weak tea.
I really want to dream that I might actually be cured — in that I will live 30 to 35 more years and eventually die of something else.
Does anyone know of someone how had an advanced solid tumor cancer, got treatment and then never had a recurrence for decades?
I, too am 2 1/2 years post chemo/radiation for squamous cell, I get scopes and scans every 6 months now.
My SIL had ovarian cancer, she had surgery and aggressive chemo. She was an RN so had frequent scans. Ten years after treatment the cancer returned and was extremely aggressive. She got more chemo but succumbed about 6 month after it returned. She was 53.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I have been clear for two years+ now, but I also have a late aunt who beat her cancer at age 67, and it came back at age 89. She ended up making it to 91 however, without treatment since it would have been too hard on her at that age. Mine was bladder and it had spread to my prostate, both were removed, then chemo until early 2020. I am still getting MRIs with contrast and chest x-rays, it was every 5 months, now every year. I don't expect to live another 35 years (age 105) but do hope it doesn't return and I can make it to my normal expected age. Most of the people I know who had it were much older an treated well before the current methods and research that we can rely on today. I can tell you that my mother had breast cancer in her 60s, and is now 93.
I really want to dream that I might actually be cured — in that I will live 30 to 35 more years and eventually die of something else.
Does anyone know of someone how had an advanced solid tumor cancer, got treatment and then never had a recurrence for decades?
Just curious …
You should realize that "cancer", including "solid tumor" cancer comes in many varieties. What might hold in general for colon, or breast cancer may not for lung, liver, kidney, pancreatic, or some other cancer. That classic 5 year threshold doesn't hold for every type. On top of that, every individual can manifest disease in an individual manner. How one person (in conjunction with the rest of their health circumstances) overcomes their initial diagnosis can be different from another person with the same disease.
Not certain what your definition of "advanced" cancer is, but if you interpret that more broadly than one that has truly metastasized to those that have spread beyond the local lymph nodes and calls for systemic adjunct treatment, guess I qualify. I was diagnosed with such a cancer at age 35. Went through surgery, chemo, radiation, plus hormone suppression for 5 years after that. No recurrence for the subsequent 25 years (that's multiple decades, right?). Another cancer of the same type popped up again in the same tissue, though whether it was a recurrence or a novel tumor that happened to be the exact same tissue type is debatable. That was 4 years ago. I am now cancer free again at 67. My initial oncologist all those years ago who I really respected helped me realize that this disease process wasn't really a matter of "cured" or "not cured". I learned not to think of it in such black & white terms. Maybe it does come down to semantics. I haven't really spent much time categorizing myself as either one. It takes time to stop trying to pigeonhole yourself and IMHO there's healing in that too. I'm still here which is really what matters.
Last edited by Parnassia; 07-11-2022 at 02:05 PM..
You should realize that "cancer", including "solid tumor" cancer comes in many varieties. What might hold in general for colon, or breast cancer may not for lung, liver, kidney, pancreatic, or some other cancer. That classic 5 year threshold doesn't hold for every type. On top of that, every individual can manifest disease in an individual manner. How one person (in conjunction with the rest of their health circumstances) overcomes their initial diagnosis can be different from another person with the same disease.
Not certain what your definition of "advanced" cancer is, but if you interpret that more broadly than one that has truly metastasized to those that have spread beyond the local lymph nodes and calls for systemic adjunct treatment, guess I qualify. I was diagnosed with such a cancer at age 35. Went through surgery, chemo, radiation, plus hormone suppression for 5 years after that. No recurrence for the subsequent 25 years (that's multiple decades, right?). Another cancer of the same type popped up again in the same tissue, though whether it was a recurrence or a novel tumor that happened to be the exact same tissue type is debatable. That was 4 years ago. I am now cancer free again at 67. My initial oncologist all those years ago who I really respected helped me realize that this disease process wasn't really a matter of "cured" or "not cured". I learned not to think of it in such black & white terms. Maybe it does come down to semantics. I haven't really spent much time categorizing myself as either one. It takes time to stop trying to pigeonhole yourself and IMHO there's healing in that too. I'm still here which is really what matters.
Thanks! You have great responses … as always.
I guess I am trying to figure out if I should start hoping and planning as if I were going to live a long time, start daring to imagine that I will be there to care for my husband as he gets older (he is 6.5 years older than I am)… instead of unconsciously living from scan to scan … in three months, now sox month chunks.
Part of it is just mindset, but part of it has to do with practical choices. Do I have to concern myself with making sure I will have enough savings left to support myself when I am old old and maybe alone? Or do I just have fun now while we can. My husband and I have planned four big vacations for this year (three international, one domestic). Some of this is pent up wanderlust due to Covid, but this somewhat extravagant schedule was also driven by my worries about each scan, I want to live it up while I can! But if I keep doing this .l and don’t have a reurrence, will I regret my selfish younger self?
I suppose I will somehow thread the needle and choose some kind of middle road. But the uncertainty is just pretty hard to deal with … and I am beginning to want to believe in long-term success, instead of assuming that it wasn’t going to work out for me.
I guess I am trying to figure out if I should start hoping and planning as if I were going to live a long time, start daring to imagine that I will be there to care for my husband as he gets older (he is 6.5 years older than I am)… instead of unconsciously living from scan to scan … in three months, now sox month chunks.
Part of it is just mindset, but part of it has to do with practical choices. Do I have to concern myself with making sure I will have enough savings left to support myself when I am old old and maybe alone? Or do I just have fun now while we can. My husband and I have planned four big vacations for this year (three international, one domestic). Some of this is pent up wanderlust due to Covid, but this somewhat extravagant schedule was also driven by my worries about each scan, I want to live it up while I can! But if I keep doing this .l and don’t have a reurrence, will I regret my selfish younger self?
I suppose I will somehow thread the needle and choose some kind of middle road. But the uncertainty is just pretty hard to deal with … and I am beginning to want to believe in long-term success, instead of assuming that it wasn’t going to work out for me.
Well, look at long term planning/visioning this way.
If you don't do it and live too long, you'll regret that. If you plan and vision but don't happen to end up living to see the outcome, it won't be your problem, will it? You won't be there to care whether you left money or benefits unused on the table, right? The future is always uncertain. As they say, life happens while you are busy planning something else. There's that speeding city bus you have absolutely no control over. I happen to think that the process of visioning and planning all by itself generates some peace of mind.
Also FWIW, you started this particular "survivor's" journey 3 years ago. Check back with yourself in 10. You may find your mindset is quite different. In the meantime, you managed to live those 10 years instead of worrying whether you would. I'm not trying to dismiss your concerns and I am looking back on this from a lot farther out than you are, but it is still relatively early days.
Last edited by Parnassia; 07-11-2022 at 04:28 PM..
My hub was diagnosed with stage 4 tonsil cancer August 2009. Back then, all we knew is he had a golf ball over his carotid artery, not where it started. Right tonsil and a dozen lymph nodes removed, 3 chemo, 33 radiation treatments that ended December 24th 2009. He then had all sorts of issues with a herpes mouth sore in his nose and mouth, big blisters on his hands for close to a year or two. He also had lupus right before chemo that went away.
My stomach used to be in knots for those first years until year 5. Then whenever he had lung issues, I'd wonder if it was hitting his lungs next. Have to say, he's been pretty healthy since the chemo left his body.
He's now 65. He doesn't even remember fighting cancer.
His mother had breast cancer, the duct one first in 2007, put on hormones which I believe caused the not hormone receptive bad breast cancer she was diagnosed with about 10 years later, then another 2 years later it took her, a month shy of 85. His father passed from a rare brain cancer at 72, he wasn't retired.
My hub won't fight again. He's planned our life plus made sure I'll have enough to live on when he's gone since he's 8 years older. I was exposed to benzene, already tested positive, so expect to have AML leukemia at some point like my dad. My hub could end up burying me first. We just don't know especially with all the environmental stuff we were all exposed to that messed up our immune systems.
Enjoy your vacation. I hope neither of you get COVID like some have where they've had to quarantine at a hotel, their vacation ruined.
Back in the Fall of 2019, I received chemo-radiation with “curative intent” for stage IIIb non-small cell lung cancer. Now, 2 years and 7 months after the end of treatment, I just had another set of “all clear” scans— the 9th in a row! Yay!
Good job, Jill! Good for you!
The problem with determinig prognosis is that not only are different types of cancer different, but each individual pt's cancer is different. "Averages" mean little and only apply to the group, not the individual.
Anecdote-- My uncle's lung ca was diagnosed at age 79 serendipitdously when a scan of his belly showed a lung problem. Subsequent scans and a biopsy revealed a huge tumor (undifferentiated non-small cell) wiping out one lobe of a lung and obvious involvement of the local lymph noodes and maybe a met in an adrenal gland....I reasoned this way-- that tumor is either relatively new but extremely aggressive or it's been there for ages and has not spread very much, ie- not agressive....Given the down sides of agressive treatment, he declined any at all....Three years later at age 82, his health status is unchanged, doing very well....Everybody is different and you can't tell ahead of time where you will stand.
As Frank Sinatra said, " When the end comes, I'd rather regret the things I've done than the things I haven't done."
How much are a couple trips gunna cost? $20,000?...How much longer can you live on an extra $20,000?
Back in the Fall of 2019, I received chemo-radiation with “curative intent” for stage IIIb non-small cell lung cancer. Now, 2 years and 7 months after the end of treatment, I just had another set of “all clear” scans— the 9th in a row! Yay!
It looks like I might up being “cured.” I put “cured” in quotes, because all you need to do is survive 5 years beyond the end of treatment to lay claim to this status. But honestly, for someone in her 50s in a family where the women routinely survive into their late 80s and 90s, five years seems a little like weak tea.
I really want to dream that I might actually be cured — in that I will live 30 to 35 more years and eventually die of something else.
Does anyone know of someone how had an advanced solid tumor cancer, got treatment and then never had a recurrence for decades?
Just curious …
The good news is, yes, my mother had breast cancer at around age 40 and that was back in 1950. She detected a lump in her breast in 1950 but it was at a bad time because we were in the process of getting ready to move. So she put off seeing a doctor until we were settled in a new house.
She finally went to a well respected cancer clinic in Boston. They did a biopsy and found cancer. So they did a radical-mastectomy right then and there. They then followed up with something like Radiation. She called it something else, perhaps it was "Radium"?
Anyway that was when she was 40 and she lived cancer-free for the rest of her life. She lived to age 83 and died of something else.
But here's some not so good news. When it comes to cancer, there's no such thing as saying that a person is cured. Instead, they use the word "remission". So your doctor should say that you are in remission.
Also, many people think that metastasis doesn't happen early in the formation of a tumor. They think it happens after the tumor is well formed. But now they know that metastasis can begin very early in the formation of a tumor. That doesn't mean that metastasis is easily accomplished. It could happen right away or could take years. A lot may depend on the person's immune system.
There's always the possibility that some cancer cells can break-off and travel to a distant cite and they might be able to adapt to their new location. However, in order to grow, they need a good blood supply and depending on where they are, that could take time. So, it's all very unpredictable.
What does it take to grow more blood vessels in order to feed the growth of cancer? It's the same thing that it takes to grow more fat cells. All three macronutrients can be pro growth. So if a person consumes more than what they need to sustain themselves, they will find themselves in a pro growth mode. And that's what cancer likes, assuming that metastasis has been successful.
So diet does play an important role, and the following link may help to give you more ideas about prevention.
In the Book, "The China Study" Dr. Campbell goes one step further and suggests (from many years of research) that eliminating animal protein is most important so as not to promote the formation and growth of cancer.
Last edited by LongevitySeeker; 07-20-2022 at 08:46 AM..
I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer back in 2008. Turns out during surgery they found it was a rare, less aggressive type. For several years, I had clean scans. Then a few mets started showing up in the liver, where most mets start for folks with pancreatic cancer. But no real change in treatment (none) until 2016 when I moved and started with a new oncologist.
Things motored along with a monthly injection of a drug, until three years ago, when I underwent a targeted therapy. That worked for a year, then more mets appeared. And this spring, the tumor growth seemed to accelerate, so the oncologist started me on an oral chemotherapy.
Interestingly, through all this, I've felt generally fine, doing biking, road trips and such, while practicing a level of covid based isolation. And I have no idea what the future holds, but 14 bonus years is a real gift, considering that in July of 2008 I thought I had months to live!
My point is to enjoy the time you have, forget thoughts of "cure" versus anything else. It's not the real question, since we all have this "sword" hanging over our heads that we could be diagnosed with a fatal disease tomorrow, catch lethal covid and so forth. Think long term, and be prepared to adjust plans....
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