Given that the five-year survival rate of stage 3 cancer patients is very low, why is the therapy still being carried out in patients with stage 3 cancer? Why not just go to palliative therapy?

Current survival rates are outdated. I researched them thoroughly. The stats are old and do not reflect the effectiveness of new treatments.

I was stage 4 and told I was out of options. All cancer agency oncologists confirmed my terminal diagnosis and prognosis of death in 3 - 18 months. These people believe that my type of cancer can only be cured by surgical removal of the tumour. As I was not a surgical candidate, I was terminal.

Last communication with them was April 2017. After only 2 chemo treatments and 2 immunotherapy treatments, I am in remission. If my next pet scan is clear, I will be considered cured (if you are disease free for 2 years, you are considered cured.)

Why did I agree to chemo and immunotherapy? Why not? What did I have to lose? It might give me a little more time to live. My plan was to try it and if it made ill, I’d stop. Chemo made me horribly sick and I had a severe allergic reaction to immunotherapy. So I stopped.

I lacked confidence in cancer agency oncologists and sought an independent oncologist for confirmation that this was the end game. Having reviewed my medical records, the oncologist anticipated an emaciated end stage client to walk into his office. At first meet he knew things didn’t add up. Further, he advised that I was not out of options. Treatment was possible, and ill effects of treatment could be mitigated with medications administered appropriately. Cure was possible. That was the truth and I am proof of it.

Once you label someone as terminal, they become that, but it is the individual that determines the out come, not the doctors. I believe that no one has the right to destroy another’s autonomy and hope. Life is possible until it ends.