To hope there will be less 'barbaric ' ways of treating cancer?

[malificent7]

I know 'barbaric' is an emotive word to describe life saving treatments but i work in a hospital and that's how a patient described her chemotherapy today.

My mum died of cancer and the chemo and radiotherapy had bad side effects. It was socially isolating for her as she had to avoid us if we had sniffles due to her compromised immune system.
Obviously it is worth giving these treatments a go but i hope there will be a gentler drug in the future.
But perhaps an aggressive disease needs an aggressive response?

Obviously YANBU to hope. I think that’s what we all hope even if it is unrealistic at the moment

Yanbu.
There was a potential treatment being developed a few decades back thats sunk without trace. It involved collecting your antibodies and training them to respond to the cold virus, growing a batch in the lab, then injecting the cold virus plus the antibodies into the tumour.
The result was the antibodies learned to attack the tumour cells, and the tumour would reduce. the patient reacted as if they had a bout of flu. It only worked on certain types of carcinoma but it was looking promising.

My mother had cancer twice (7 year gap). The changes in her treatment were incredible. The first time she was regularly passing out. The second time she worked through her treatment (with a couple of weeks off for surgery). I hear that the new individually tailored treatments (I think they’re still in clinical trials) are even better.

In addition to the trialling of new drugs there are also clinical trials that look at whether less intense treatments can produce the same survival rate. There is definitely the aim to make cancer treatments easier.

My OH has just finished 6 months of gruelling chemo, the side effects of which put him in hospital 3 or 4 times and gave him blood clots in both lungs. We said if the cancer didn't kill him - the chemo would. It didn't but the blood clots nearly did, and he's not sure he'd go through it again.
I hope we never have to make that decision.
Sorry about your mum

My mum had a barbaric operation for cancer. So brutal I was angry at surgeon for what he did to her (irrational reaction of course because it saved her life but it felt like an assault at the time). It was her only option and left her permanently disfigured and disabled. She has said if it comes back she will refuse further treatment and just let the cancer take her. Heartbreaking as that is, I can absolutely see where she’s coming from.

I agree with you and the use of "barbaric". My wife's first surgery, chemo and radiotherapy were horrible for her. The later treatment by 10 years, despite her condition being terminal were far better targetted and allowed a pretty good quality of life almost until the end.
The advent of new therapies which only target the cancer will hopefully make the experience far less traumatic.
I read something in the early days which likened the treatment to a shotgun blast as opposed to a rifle shot. The damage to other organs is unfortunately the price of these treatments. But, until we have a better way, we were incredibly grateful for the time it gave us.
The NHS in those circumstances, is the fantastic service we were so thankful for. Not perfect, but so so good.

There have been great improvements to both radiotherapy and chemotherapy in recent years. Better drugs,lower doses and less destructive surgery. And, most importantly, better survival rates.

But yes, long way to go. Immunotherapy is looking very exciting at the moment and who knows, in another decade perhaps we will look back and feel amazed what previous patients had to deal with. In ten years we might well take longer but the science is definitely developing.

Yanbu to hope.

I am grateful for these treatments though, they've kept my dad alive for almost 3 years now even though he was given a terminal diagnosis (6 months left) 2 years ago.

My dads had radiotherapy and chemo (countless rounds of)
He is moving onto immunotherapy this week

yanbu. cancer treatment can seem like a form of torture

CBD oil has shown to kill some cancers. The problem is being allowed to use it. Before anyone says anything I am aware it doesn't work for everyone. Like chemo different cancers react different to each method.

yanbu to hope

but tbh the new crispr gene cell therapy sound horrendous for the patient but gives a lot of hope for difficult to treat cancers.

But not all chemo is the same as there are a number of different chemo drugs and different methods of administration.

I lost my husband to cancer. At the time it was found it was too late for any treatment and he died 3 months later.

Now my brother has the same cancer. His was found earlier and so far he has had chemo and radiotherapy and is due for an 8 hour operation to hopefully remove the tumour ( plus several other bits) later this month.
None of his treatment thus far has been fun and his operation is major surgery with major implications for his life after but it better than the alternative.

YANBU. My dad didn't survive his first round due to his liver already being compromised. I work in a hospital research department and there is a lot of research going on, including seeing if existing treatment can be reduced without reducing efficacy. Also drugs for side effects. I am absolutely terrified of getting cancer and facing treatment for it.

I agree. I had cancer and was young and fit with a very aggressive cancer so they upped the dosage if chemo to the point of killing me. It saved my life (and the horrendous surgery) but has had a major negative impact on my body since. I am grateful it worked and the amazing care I received, but am also hopeful that, God forbid it comes back, the advances in treatment will mean an 'easier' treatment path with positive outcome.

There already are, for some cancers, such as mine. The treatment is an inhibitor - it’s still an expensive and potentially hostile drug, but I get on with it OK (my side effects are petty gripes, not the extensive or dangerous ones) so it’s a just daily tablet (for as long as keeps working)

One day, I hope, every cancer will have a kinder treatment. Until then, the wish is for effective ones.

‘There was a potential treatment being developed a few decades back thats sunk without trace’

What you describe sounds like CAR-T which was approved by NICE earlier this year for some cancers when standard treatments are failing

www.england.nhs.uk/cancer/cdf/car-t-therapy/

I refered to my treatment as having been sliced, diced, poisoned and cooked and that was only 5 years ago.

However my DM is now having targeted biological treatment which dependant on the cancer type can be far better tolerated and still relatively succesful.

I'm glad a relative was able to have a targeted therapy for her lung cancer diagnosis recently. they tested for the genetic mutation and also lined up one for if / when it mutated again...it is a clinical trial but it is working. There are newer things - also immunotherapy going on. I think she was nit suitable for chemo...but it is good as that can be horrible and I was glad.

My chemotherapy was hell. Absolutely dreadful. I wanted to die. I begged my DH not to take me each time (1 whole day was taken up each fortnight for 24 weeks). I felt the chemotherapy made me worse ( it didn't, it killed the cancer) and I could barely eat or speak and felt like I couldn't breathe. If my cancer comes back I don't know if I would do it again. My DD has recently had the exact same cancer stage 4 to my stage 2 and her treatment was much more aggressive necessitating 3 nights in hospital each cycle and she was so ill she had to stay in for 9 nights each time, she had blood transfusions, she had heart problems. She asked to be allowed to die and not have the treatment but because she wasn't 18 ( 2 months off 18) we wouldn't agree. Sometimes I wish we had. She happens to have another very severe illness which makes her bedbound anyway. I cannot Stand people saying how brave we all are having cancer and fighting it. I literally didn't fight it, I begged to be allowed to give in to it. It's totally crap and cancer treatments are barbaric and medieval and I pray that no one I love ever has to go through it. My mum died of it. My FIL died of it. So many friends and their loved ones too. And CBD oil doesn't cure cancer.

It is barbaric x

Did anyone else see the programme 'A Year to Save My Life' last week? It was about the targeted treatment received by George McGavin for his malignant melanoma, and gave great hope for the treatment now being developed for many types of cancer. It was riveting..!

YANBU. I really hope that in the future people are able to look back at the blunter forms of chemo and radiotherapy in the way we’d look back at say sawing off infected legs - got the job done with the best tools that were available at the time but barbaric by modern standards

I hope so, and from what I’ve heard researchers are looking at ‘kinder’ treatments (especially for kids).

I suppose the difficulty is cancer itself is so aggressive and relentless it needs an equally suited treatment, but i hope that isn’t the case forever.