Cancer. Share what you know....

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• 1. At 5:18pm on 26 Jan 2009, David_McNickle wrote:

  I was born on July 5.

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• 2. At 5:21pm on 26 Jan 2009, Ed Iglehart wrote:

  Eddie,
  
  Are you sure the title is apt?

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• 3. At 5:49pm on 26 Jan 2009, Screamingmuldoon wrote:

  Do not resusitate. A friend of mine was "cured" of cancer. The cure killed him.

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• 4. At 5:59pm on 26 Jan 2009, funnyJoedunn wrote:

  McNickle
  
  I was born on the wrong side of the tracks but what does this have to do with it?

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• 5. At 6:08pm on 26 Jan 2009, Chris_Ghoti wrote:

  fJd @ 4, he means he's not a Libra.

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• 6. At 6:12pm on 26 Jan 2009, normanmugabe wrote:

  When D H Lawrence's mother died of cancer, Lawrence reportedly said cancer is caused by fret.

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• 7. At 6:17pm on 26 Jan 2009, funnyJoedunn wrote:

  CG 5
  
  Oh right, didn't realise we had to be lateral thinkers too.

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• 8. At 6:26pm on 26 Jan 2009, Screamingmuldoon wrote:

  normanmugabe, he could have a point. I have a sister and a friend who are obsessed with cancer. Both of them hale and hearty. I never leave them alone together - they could mestastasize

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• 9. At 9:28pm on 26 Jan 2009, John1943 wrote:

  Forgive me for being a bit naive but this is my first time! Other comments here seem to me somewhat obscure in relation to cancer. Well anyway, I've got prostate cancer - diagnosed over a year ago. I don't feel ill and have had little, if any, pain. My treatment is entirely anti-hormone so the worst part is getting extreme hot flushes - up to a dozen or more times every 24 hours. I am determined not to retreat into any sort of worry about my situation. I am a Christian - which I find helps, and am just going on living my life as if nothing much has changed. I don't see this as any form of denial, I just think that in my circumstances my outlook (the doctors said 5 to 10 years) is really not that bad, so why complain? There's always so many others with far worse prospects. I'm glad to be alive at a time when medical advances are so encouraging.

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• 10. At 00:26am on 27 Jan 2009, mittfh wrote:

  @9: the overwhelming majority of comments on the subject are over on the iPM blog (follow the link at the top of the page). Here, comments can be more esoteric...
  
  Back to topic, strictly speaking, your body cannot "fight" cancer on its own. Cancer cells are your own body cells - it's just that the mechanism responsible for regulating cell division has gone haywire. So although the cells are reproducing without control, the body's immune system ignores it because it still regards the tumour as "self".
  
  Although cancer survival rates have dramatically improved, most chemotherapy treatments cannot target in specifically on the cancer cells, but hit any fast dividing cell, which includes hair follicles and the intestinal lining. As side effects can include nausea, immunosuppression, memory loss and hair loss; perhaps the most important thing a patient can do is to try and maintain a positive mental attitude. How this is done varies from person to person, and there are a range of strategies in the comments on the iPM blog - including carrying on regardless, and (more imaginatively) visualising what's happening as a battle between the cancer cells, chemotherapy drugs and their immune system.
  
  Unsurprisingly, two of the main goals of current cancer research are to minimise the side effects (whilst not compromising on effectiveness), and to develop "specially targeted delivery vehicles" (i.e. mechanisms to target the tumour without also targeting other body cells).

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• 11. At 01:00am on 27 Jan 2009, Ed Iglehart wrote:

  Cultures can get cancer too. Ours has a problem with unlimited and uncontrolled growth.
  
  Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a
  finite world is either a madman or an economist.
  
  --Kenneth Boulding
  
  Peace and recovery
  ed
  

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• 12. At 02:36am on 27 Jan 2009, JacobMadison wrote:

  This topic doesn't seem to have the right title.
  
  However, I do know that my grandmother died of cancer.
  
  -Jacob

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• 13. At 1:15pm on 27 Jan 2009, Piper wrote:

  
  The name "cancer" covers a highly complex collection of diseases; all non-linear in behaviour and the pathologies of "most" are presently, still very poorly understood.
  
  For example, some leading Breast Cancer authorities SPECULATE that when the medical community eventually unravels the "mechanics" of Breast Cancers and looks back at today's knowledge levels, we might find that in early 2009 we only knew about 0.5% - 1% of the pathology.
  
  But, the good news is that virtually world-wide, "every day", substantial research advances are being made and many new drugs are in-trial and, in the pipeline. Cancer research collaboration now involves almost unbelievably diverse disciplines e.g. structural engineers and nano-technologists working hand-in-hand within the same laboratories as more traditional cell biologists, chemical engineering, clinicians etc. etc.
  
  Computers and the internet have made international information dissemination and experimental collaboration fast and effective. The world cancer research community's knowledge base is growing exponentially. Quite brilliant. BUT there's a long, long way to go.
  
  For those who want a reader-friendly "up-date" on the field try the October 2008 edition of "T*ME* magazine. Very well written, informative, accurate and really hope-giving. I'd also suggest the website of the new (late 2008) US Cancer charity formed to finance latest research and development techniques: "standup2cancer". Good stuff there. Really.
  
  Anyway, enough waffle. It's becoming clearer (through clinical trials) that a Cancer patient's psychological approach IS important to treatment and longevity results and, here's the latest referenced research report I've seen - which happens to have been conducted on Breast Cancer sufferers.
  
  "A new study finds that breast cancer patients who participate in intervention sessions focusing on improving mood, coping effectively, and altering health behaviors live longer than patients who do not receive such psychological support. The study indicates that reducing the stress that can accompany cancer diagnosis and treatment can have a significant impact on patients' survival..."
  
  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117082042.htm
  

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• 14. At 1:18pm on 27 Jan 2009, Piper wrote:

  @13
  
  Apologies that should be the October 6 2008 issue of "T*ME"

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• 15. At 4:07pm on 27 Jan 2009, David_McNickle wrote:

  C_G 5, Are you saying I'm unbalanced?

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• 16. At 4:37pm on 27 Jan 2009, Piper wrote:

  
  Further to 13 & 14
  
  Some may wish to have a look at the site below - "fold.It"
  
  This gives an interactive flavour of the complexity faced daily by researchers into all types of complex disease.
  
  Have a go. Who knows..? There really could be a Nobel Prize coming your way...
  
  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080508122520.htm

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• 17. At 6:53pm on 27 Jan 2009, captain31 wrote:

  Cancer is not necessarily the killer that everyone thinks it is, many people survive cancer and the health service in this country just gets better and better at caring for sufferers as the years go by, my mother deid in 1970 when I was 7, she had cancer of the throat through smoking, care back then was very poor, pain relief was about all that could be done, the same was true for my father when he died in 1980 of lung cancer but my wife survived colon cancer in 2008 and the care that she recieved at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was unsurpassed, cancer isn't necessarily the death sentence that it used to be, a positive attitude can HELP in the fight against cancer if only the sufferer doesn't give up.

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• 18. At 7:52pm on 27 Jan 2009, Chris_Ghoti wrote:

  DMcN @ 15, no, no, perish forfend!
  
  I might consider the possibility that the perfect balance was like a mattress balancing on a bottle of wine, but that's only an opinion, clearly, and I wouldn't dream of asserting it was a fact.

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• 19. At 09:48am on 28 Jan 2009, David_McNickle wrote:

  C_G 18, With or without cork? Empty or full? Red or white? Innerspring or stuffed? You haven't thought this out very carefully, have you?

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• 20. At 8:15pm on 28 Jan 2009, Chris_Ghoti wrote:

  DMcN @ 19, *I* wouldn't know what sort of mattress and bottle you thought you were, balancing.
  
  Though I'd guess not empty, because a bottle *of* wine wouldn't be; if it were empty it would be a wine-bottle instead.
  
  That wouldn't scan, but when did Zimmerman ever worry too much about scansion?

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