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personAAA t1_ivx3pl0 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Experimental cancer vaccine shows promise in animal studies by BoundariesAreFun

Cancer is not a death sentence. There are some terminal cancers that killed, but not the majority.

Cancer is a collection of diseases. Some more serious than others.

Prognosis of any cancer varies a lot. The key things are location, tissue of origin, and cancer genotype.

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hurfery t1_ivzf2m7 wrote

Untreated cancer is 100% always a death sentence though, right?

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personAAA t1_iw00vrt wrote

No.

For some cancers, better to just watch and wait than treat them. Don't take the therapy side effects for low grade cancer that is localizing, non to very slow spread, not impacting any function. Monitor the cancer to see if anything changes.

Cancer likelihood increases with age. For a really old patient, very possible to find with advanced imaging small cancers. Not worth treating and those are not going to kill the patient. They are low grade, not impacting function and more of we only founded it due to imaging. Patient is going to die from something else. Patient is going to die with cancer than from it.

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