Is cancer so “uncurable” we only hope to extend the patient’s life and not cure it completely?
In: Biology
It is very hard to measure small amounts of cancer. So we can not easily say if they are cured or not. Even after 10 years with regular checkups there have been relapses. Another issue is that cancer treatment is generally very bad for the body. It is not uncommon for doctor to cure the cancer only for the patient to die from the treatment a bit later. So we avoid saying things like the patient is cured from cancer. Instead we measure how long a patient lived after they were diagnosed, or after they started treatment. This is far more accurate then any other measurement. Although it is far from perfect.
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