Health and response to cancer treatment
“How long do they have?” is a complicated question that cancer patients and their families frequently ask their doctors.
With older adults, who comprise a more than half of cancer patients, physicians use a detailed assessment process of a person’s health status as it relates to the cancer diagnosis to calculate life expectancy.
According to Dr. Harvey Gilbert of the Gilbert Guide, there are several factors to consider in the assessment includes functional status, other illnesses, social support, medications and more.
Though the length of survival and quality of life depends on the type of cancer and the treatment, there are some factors that assist the physician in life expectancy discussions.
When my mother was sick, one thing we never asked was “how long?” because it was obvious that a diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer wasn’t good, and I really didn’t want her to hear a prediction because I felt that she might behave and respond as if the time was a known fact.
If you did the assessment on her, she probably should have died before she was ever diagnosed. Though she worked full time and wasn’t frail, she also wasn’t the specimen of health and it was all smoking related.
Please don’t smoke.
I think not asking worked out for the best because she lived 3 years after diagnosis and statistically probably only should have lived about 9 months.
Tags: Cancer, Gilbert-Guide, HealthRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Aging Parents
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