What is your experience with friends/family taking chemotherapy?

[djacobox372]

I've known about a dozen... it works 90% of the time. Typically when it doesn't work it's well known that it's a long shot going in, but even then it often works.

Chemo is MUCH better today than before, they can engineer treatments based on the unique make up of your cancer.

 

[Jesus X]

I went through chemo when I was 14 years old for non-hodgkins lymphoma.

That was 30 years ago

That is what andy whitfield died from at 39.

 

[method115]

Only know my MIL and my aunt. Both died. It was insane how quickly my MIL went from being diagnosed to dying. It all happened in 6-7 months. They told her she caught it early on top of that.

 

[TeTe]

That is what andy whitfield died from at 39.

LIke others mentioned, a lot of survival comes down to how far advanced the cancer is. He was stage IV it looks like, so I'm not sure how much it metastasized.

I honestly cant remember what stage mine was in but I do remember being fortunate enough to have spotted the tumor in my neck and being diagnosed within three weeks of finding it. They said the type I had was aggressive but it hadn't spread anywhere else. So after they removed the tumor, I went through treatment for six months. Basically, the chemo was a "just to be sure" thing in case there were residual cancer cells.

Oddly enough, I dated a woman when I was in my early 20s who had Hodgkin's disease when she was 15, went through chemo and is alive to this day. Same thing, caught it early and was easily treated.

 

[Doughie99]

So far, what has been your experience with knowing people that have chemo? How much of them have been successful in treating cancer?

I don't know a single person who has been taking chemo that has beaten cancer. I was going to say one, our secretary at work. She has been taking chemo for a decade, as long as I've known her. But her life is falling apart, she's lost all her hair again and things are looking dim. We all feel very sorry for her. She's only in her 30s.

Do you guys know anyone that has had cancer and totally beat it with chemo or any other cancer treatment?

I know a girl who has just finished her 2nd year of chemo for ovarian cancer. I was on thr phone with her (whatsapp messages mainly) every day for months to try to give her mental/ spiritual support and anything else I could to help her through it. She said I helped her a lot during a v tough period.

She got the all clear about 3 weeks ago. PET scans revealed the lesions and bad cells had gone . She also had surgeries too. Not sure about radiation therapy.

So....whilst she doesn't know if it will come back she is currently treatment free and got the all clear. She is late 40s.

 

[Neck&Neck]

I’ve been on Chemo for the last 12 years
Last one was just over a week ago
Also had lots of radiation treatments, immunotherapy, surgeries, stem cell transplant
I’ve had so many treatments that I’m just about out of options now
Been retrying some older chemo drugs lately
I was diagnosed in my early 30’s
I have Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer
I was diagnosed at advanced stage 4
It’s normally curable if you catch it early

 

[TheTickG]

So far, what has been your experience with knowing people that have chemo? How much of them have been successful in treating cancer?

I don't know a single person who has been taking chemo that has beaten cancer. I was going to say one, our secretary at work. She has been taking chemo for a decade, as long as I've known her. But her life is falling apart, she's lost all her hair again and things are looking dim. We all feel very sorry for her. She's only in her 30s.

Do you guys know anyone that has had cancer and totally beat it with chemo or any other cancer treatment?

Mom got chemo 25 years ago. You wouldn't know it you saw her.

 

[ShadowRun]

Dad got it diagnosed stage 3, only had one chemo treatment, but his stomach and other parts of the body starting having a lot of issues. In and out of hospitals for a few months with a lot of time wasted and couldn't do treatments until the stomach issue was fixed. Finally they hey gave him colostomy bag, by then it was stage 4 and spread., untreatable. Passed a few weeks after that. This was all in about 4 month time span, really recent.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

My mom did chemo for breast cancer when I was 9 years old. It was hard on her, and she was very self conscious about losing her hair. But 30 years on she’s still with us, so I’m thankful she got the treatment that she needed.

 

[Winston Wolf]

Mom was diagnosed with a rhabdomyosarcoma in her neck in march of 2022, when she was 53 years old. Unoperable due to the site and size of the tumor (she had been complaining about what she thought was an ear infection for a few weeks). Went through radiotherapy and then chemo for about a year. It beat her really, really bad - I won't got into details - but man, what an absolute warrior she was.

In january of 2023 she tried a new method of chemo in one the country's top hospitals, basically, from what I understand, the drugs were "injected" right into the tumor (this is obviously a layman's description). Unfortunately, the procedure caused a stroke that severely impaired her speech, mobility and memory, though she was on her way to a partial recovery, having already regained a good portion of those three, when the tumor finally obstructed her airways and she had to get a tracheostomy and I never heard her voice again after april of that year.

She passed on september 28, 2023, at age 54, roughly 18 months after diagnosis.

 

[shorinryu86]

My mom was diagnosed with colorectal cancer January 2017. She did chemo and radiation therapy. She only lasted 6 weeks until she passed away.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[shorinryu86]

I don't think chemo can cure any cancer, it only just slows the spread of it.

 

[fingercuffs]

My mom did chemo for breast cancer when I was 9 years old. It was hard on her, and she was very self conscious about losing her hair. But 30 years on she’s still with us, so I’m thankful she got the treatment that she needed.

Lovely success story.
We didn't pressure my mum into not having chemo but even after having the tumour removed it was growing back again. She was so sick she couldn't make it to the toilet and chemo makes you sick the other way so we urged her to have what quality of life she had left without all of that as well.

I'm so very chuffed she's still with you. Much love.

 

[fingercuffs]

I don't think chemo can cure any cancer, it only just slows the spread of it.

Surgery takes the beast out, radiology/chemo deals with the aftermath to make sure the surgery did its job.
Mine was quite a mild case and I did a month of M-F radiology every morning which took care of it.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Lovely success story.
We didn't pressure my mum into not having chemo but even after having the tumour removed it was growing back again. She was so sick she couldn't make it to the toilet and chemo makes you sick the other way so we urged her to have what quality of life she had left without all of that as well.

I'm so very chuffed she's still with you. Much love.

I’m sorry about your mum.

 

[shorinryu86]

Surgery takes the beast out, radiology/chemo deals with the aftermath to make sure the surgery did its job.
Mine was quite a mild case and I did a month of M-F radiology every morning which took care of it.

My relatives from paternal sides died from cancer.

 

[fingercuffs]

My relatives from paternal sides died from cancer.

We've all lost parents to cancer. 50% of us have it at some point in our lives. It's not some newfangled disease.
I didn't expect to have it when I was 44 but it wasn't a great stretch of the imagination.

 

[shorinryu86]

We've all lost parents to cancer. 50% of us have it at some point in our lives. It's not some newfangled disease.
I didn't expect to have it when I was 44 but it wasn't a great stretch of the imagination.

Well that's life, we'll never know how long we will last on this world. Even me, I don't expect to reach 60. Might aswell live to the fullest.

 

[fingercuffs]

I’m sorry about your mum.

I'm happy about your mum's success. When mine was diagnosed her first thought was yay I don't have Dementia because she was scared witless about that even though it was a recurring brain tumour which was going to kill her sooner than not and when that sunk in that she was going to have the surgery was petrified about losing her hair. I was pretty much as well but I got away with radiology. My mum was obsessed with hair to the point of spending 2 hours every morning doing her hair and make-up even if she wasn't leaving the house.

 

[shorinryu86]

My cousin undergoing chemotherapy at 42 years old.