To think that there must be a less painful cure for cancer than chemo and radiotherapy?

[toptramp]

My mum dies of cancer and I remember that the chemo and radiotherapy were horrific. I am glad that she tried them but she always said that she would rather die than go through treatment again.

I know someone who's wife is also suffering immensely due to chemo. It just seems odd that the drug kills non-cancerous cells too. I believe that one needs a strong immune system to fight cancer but chemo and radiotherapy seem to weaken the body.

OK they are our best chance atm but I do hope that someone invents something mopre cell specific soon.

died sorry

An agressive treatment for an agressive disease. All we can do is keep working to find better treatment and drugs. It's awful to see someone going through it. Like you, I lost my own mum to cancer and saw her go through it too.

there was something on the news yesterday, a new cancer centre in london afaik they were looking at another form of therapy, will try to find a link

the centre looked so good, really hope it goes nationwide

My understanding (which I freely admit is not expert) is that cancer cells are very similar to your normal body cells, the main difference being that they reproduce themselves faster. The only way to treat the disease is to kill every dividing cell in the body, this kills a proportion of normal cells but a larger proportion of cancer cells as more of them are reproducing at any given time. Anything that is that toxic to your body is going to make you ill but we have no way, as yet, to make drugs differentiate.

It is awful but a chance of recovery may be worth it.

I'm sorry to hear that about your mum and friend OP. cancer is terrible. my mum has breast cancer and was 'on the line' between needing chemo and not needing it. She chose not to have it and to only have radiotherapy as chemo is basically a poison. I'm not certain how radiotherapy alone affects people...I hope it's not too bad for her.

i can't seem to find much info about it apart from it's based at the \link{http://www.uclh.org/OurServices/OurHospitals/CC/Pages/Home.aspx\uch} i also lost my mum to cancer but i think if she had it now she would probably have survived it

If my dad had had the same tumour now as he had 24 years ago he would still have died. What I find hardest to understand are the huge advances in treating some cancers and the very few in treating others. My mum's cancer, when it arrived 14 years after his, had been greatly researched; she received ground breaking treatment and has managed a nearly (fingers, toes, everything crossed) full remission.

I'm being treated for breast cancer at the moment - it really is 'Slash, poison and burn.' (Operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.)

Saying that, I'm bloody grateful because it's saved my life. Chemo wasn't half as bad as I was expecting either, I've not been sick once. It's not a rough ride for everyone.

Cancer cells are exactly like normal cells EXCEPT they don't stop growing where normal ones do.

There are lots of different types of chemotherapy, some have bad side effects, some don't. Researchers are always trying to find ones that cause fewer problems.

I don't know if you are BU or not! I do know that the current treatments are all that they have and I hope that they find something else / better / preventative.

DMIL died just over a year ago after well over a decade of treatment, with multiple courses of chemo etc. She is missed very much. We feel that at least she got to meet her first two grand-children and we are local to DFIL to support him. It is terribly sad. All of the personal tragedies are very sad.

I'm sorry your mum died. But not everyone does following treatment, I know that's no comfort really.

My sister at 36 had chemo, radical double mastectomy and then radiotherapy. She's fine now, years on, and half way through a degree course, looking after the kids, day to day stuff, just like before.

My mum had radiotherapy and a lumpectomy - that was years ago now, she's happily contemplating retirement. My aunt had similar and is fine now too.

In my experience these radical treatments ARE harsh - but they do often work and enable people to get back to normal. Like I say I appreciate this is of little comfort to you as you've lost your dear mum and none of us like to see loved ones suffer.

I think that new treatments are being tested at this moment after a talk at work from cancer research - they were very enthusiastic about the research they do producing better treatments as well as less intrusive drugs (this was a couple of years ago) - and recall a couple of years ago a man cured of skin cancer that had been classed as terminal by way of a new experimental treatment. And then you hear of the work regressing a person's own cells back to stem cell stage.

It's very hard, when you're going through cancer treatment, to remember that it's the treatment making you feel bad, not the illness - at least, that's how it was for me. The cancer didn't hurt, the treatment (surgery and r/t) left me feeling the worst I have ever felt in my life, the r/t especially. But it meant that I am here, writing this, rather than the alternative.

I hope that gentler, equally or more effective, treatments are on their way. Personally, I think I would take anything I am offered if my cancer returns (am a few months into remission) even if it makes me feel dreadful, but I realise that this isn't how everyone feels and respect that some people don't want to put their bodies, themselves and their families through that.