<story><title>Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds</title><url>https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/08/cancer-death-rates-2021/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>cancerhacker</author><text>I created this account on July 28, 2014 [1] - I had(have?) stage IV Colon Cancer with liver metastases. I did a FOLFIRI regime with cetaximab, then a colon resection with a general surgeon.&lt;p&gt;My oncologist was great (ucsf medical center) - but the surgeon refused to address my liver mets - they were too large and distributed.&lt;p&gt;My wife found out about a specialist at Sloan-Kettering in Manhattan that uses something called a Hepatic Arterial Infusion Pump - a hockypuck that delivers 50x a chemo dose directly to the liver. That was implanted in my abdomen and I flew between SF and New York to get it refilled every 4 weeks for six months. Their surgeon then resected 75% of my liver. (Skipping a few steps here. I had another met that they couldn’t get surgically and they got it with 10 rounds of radiation.)&lt;p&gt;My company was very supportive and our health insurance picked up most of the cost - over US $2million (so far?)&lt;p&gt;I was hospitalized several times after the surgeries for post operative infections - in a way they seemed far more difficult for the doctors to address than the cancer itself.&lt;p&gt;Oh, while the Cetaximab shrank the tumors, the skin rash it caused was absolutely wretched - my cuticles would bleed and had to wear finger cots and gloves to protect them. And my eyelashes grew about 3x their normal length.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=8095321&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=8095321&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Death rates are declining for many common cancers in the U.S., report finds</title><url>https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/08/cancer-death-rates-2021/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>opportune</author><text>A close family member has stage 4 cancer.&lt;p&gt;Even if the absolute death rates for some cancers are relatively unchanged, one of the amazing things I’ve observed is that medical advances have increased the long term survival rates of terminal&amp;#x2F;metastaticized  cancers. It’s partially due to the development of various drugs that have been identified as effective against various specific mutations. Even if the cancer is incurable with existing technology, they can extend lives by years, which is nothing to sneeze at. Especially considering many people get diagnosed with cancer once they are elderly already, it can mean the difference between dying directly of cancer and living long enough to die of something else - ie the cancer becomes something more like a chronic condition than it does a direct threat (for a period of time).</text></comment>