More authors have been sharing cancer diagnoses and treatment with their readers in recent years and it is always good to read an example of hope rewarded – as Norman Spinrad supplied in a public Facebook post today:
Just came back from Sloan Kettering, the 5 year CT scan came out clean. What this means is that is officially called a cure for my cancer. What that really means is that the cancer I had has not metastasized after 5 years, meaning I have no more chance of getting another cancer than anyone else. What it does not mean is that I’m immune. Being cured of cancer once does not confer immunity. And I am enormously grateful to my oncologists Dr. David Ilson and my surgeon Dr. Dan Coit. The best of the best.
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I hesitate to say that Norman is wrong about something, but…. My impression/understanding is that the 5-year remission thing is merely statistical. And I know for a fact that the squamous-cell tumor retuned to the same place just inside my nose a bit over six years after the radiation treatment. The oncologists figured out that if the nose was cut off, it couldn’t return again, so they did and it didn’t (or hasn’t for 15+ years). Other cancers can, as he indicates, of course, develop (in my case, prostate),
Five years and declared cancer free? Or just in remission? I had my prostate taken out in 2007. My oncologist said I could not declare myself a survivor until the 10-year mark. When diagnosed at age 60, my oncologist told me that if I didn’t do anything I had maybe 10 years left. What is so special about 10 years? My cynical side says, okay, wait for your 70th birthday, declare yourself a cancer survivor, then experience a heart attack or stroke. Small victories are still victories, I guess.
Isn’t it a statistical marker, as Don said? My sister just celebrated 5 years cancer-free. That’s what I took it to mean — a point at which a past cancer patient’s risk of having cancer in the future becomes the same as anyone else’s.