My sister-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer fifteen years ago in August. Her prognosis, at the time, was that she had 6 months to two years. I saw her one month after her diagnosis (Labor day weekend) and told my wife that she would be lucky to make it to Christmas. She ended up passing on Dec 28 that year.
I know Rush has the best doctors money can buy, but Cancer doesn’t care. Really hoping for the best for him.
Circumstances of the illness differ and some progress has been made with treatments. But like you say, Cancer sucks
Cancer is a highly variable disease. No two cancers are the same and even within a patient cancer cells in one part can be different from cells in another part - and sometimes even within the same tumor itself ! They mutate so much. Rush was lucky to have a rare mutation which could be targeted by a drug and the drug he was on was getting a great response. His tumor burden was decreasing. Unfortunately the side effects proved to be not tolerable. He is on a more conventional treatment now but the response the last time he talked about it is not known. But I am sure you knew all that. The good thing is compared to your sister in Law, 15 years in oncology terms is an eternity. Lot of new drugs out there that attack cancer in different ways. I mean look at Alex Trebek. He has one of the most lethal cancers but he has already beaten the odds and still going. Hopefully with today's treatment both Alex and Rush will live for a long long time.