Mention the word ‘cancer’ and it evokes feelings of terror, horror and fear in most people. With good reason. Cancer is a killer disease and anyone who is unlucky enough to get a malignant tumor is facing a bleak future, with or without treatment.
The good news is that treatments for cancer have improved amazingly over the last several years and there is no doubt that, if caught in time, cancer can be ‘cured’.
The de facto underlying cancer treatments have not changed but the treatments have become more focused and better able to deliver a killer blow to the tumor(s) and for many of us, we can enter the phase known as remission. Remission doesn’t mean cured. Remission means that the disease has gone for the time being but there is no guarantee it won’t return or manifest itself in another part of the body.
Cancer treatments consist of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery or a combination of some or all of these. For some, the precision use of a surgeon’s scalpel possibly combined (but not necessarily) with some adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy will be sufficient to enter the remission phase.
For others, surgery maybe not possible and the treatment will only consist of chemotherapy and radiation.
The good news continues with the success rates in treating cancer and the number of people who survive treatment and enter remission are increasing.
Do you feel a ‘BUT’ coming on……?
The increased numbers of cancer survivors has lead to the unfortunate conclusion that many of these survivors will ultimately die withing 5-10 years and many of these deaths will be caused by the very same chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
The American Cancer Society now tells us that 38.5% of people in the USA will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. The National Cancer Institute puts these numbers at 40% for males and 39% of females. Meanwhile in the UK, Cancer Research UK estimates 1 in 2 born after 1960 will get cancer. These rates, bad as they are, are increasing. In the UK the rate was 1 in 3 a short time ago.
There is no escaping the fact that death is inevitable but the question is, how many of the people who die post cancer treatment die because of the treatment.
This very question has has resulted in the realization that cancer treatment can cause ‘cardiotoxicity’ and a new breed of doctors are starting to appear, called Cardio Oncologists. Cardiotoxicity caused by chemotherapy, radiation therapy or both can result in serious cardiovascular complications and ultimately the death of the cancer survivor.
It is this subject that will be explored on this website.