A Tiny Bit of Cancer

[flashl]

With a Tiny Bit of Cancer, Debate on How to Proceed

In a cancer patient, lymph nodes are the closest thing to a crystal ball. Gaze into them after removing a tumor. The presence of malignant cells may be a sign that the cancer will recur, leading to more tests and intensive treatment.

As biopsies of the lymph nodes grow more sophisticated and sensitive, oncologists and patients face the unsettling question of what to do with a little bit of cancer. It has become a familiar debate, especially for breast cancer, with no clear answer in sight.

“We can pick up things that we could never pick up before,” said Dr. Minetta Liu, an oncologist at the Georgetown University Medical Center. “But do we need to pick them up?”

Without more data to guide them, doctors worry that some women may be given test results that are actually too good, leading to more medical attention than necessary.

NY Times

[cornermouse]

1. Looking at Molly Ivins and Elizabeth Edwards

I'd say there's no such thing as test results that are too good unless you're not all that interested in finding something.

[Sadie4629]

2. I don't know how true this is, but

I read once that in every person, including healthy people, cancer cells develop daily, perhaps several times a day, and our immune systems destroy them because that's what it is there to do. It is only when an immune system is weakened that the cancer cells are allowed to grow and spread and overwhelm the immune system.

Considering that cancer treatments are so highly toxic, that they weaken the immune system, and that they are often carcinogenic themselves, maybe it is better to take a "watchful waiting approach" if there are only a few cancer cells, to give the immune system a chance to destroy them.

I say this as a person who is a 22-year cancer survivor. I had chemotherapy and radiation, and am well aware of the long-term side effects of treatment.

[leftofcool]

3. My oncologist thinks that most cancers are environmental

And his key word is "most"