Posted on 09/07/2016 3:33:50 PM PDT by MarchonDC09122009
Chemotherapy warning as hundreds die from cancer-fighting drugs (cancer drugs may kill up to 50 % patients)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/08/30/chemotherapy-warning-as-hundreds-die-from-cancer-fighting-drugs/
Sarah Knapton, Science Editor 30 August 2016
Patients should be warned about the dangers of chemotherapy after research showed that cancer drugs are killing up to 50 per cent of patients in some hospitals.
For the first time researchers looked at the numbers of cancer patients who died within 30 days of starting chemotherapy, which indicates that the medication is the cause of death, rather than the cancer.
In Milton Keynes the death rate for lung cancer treatment was 50.9 per cent, although it was based on a very small number of patients.
Deaths of lung cancer patients from chemotherapy were also far higher than the national average in Blackpool, Coventry, Derby, South Tyneside and Surrey and Sussex, according to the research.
Similarly, around one in five people who underwent palliative care for breast cancer at Cambridge University Hospitals died from their treatment.
Public Health England (PHE), said it had contacted the hospitals concerned to ask them to review practices.
More than 1,300 breast and lung cancer patients died because of chemotherapy in 2014, the study shows Chemotherapy is toxic for the body because it does not discriminate between healthy and cancerous cells.
They advised doctors to be more careful in selecting patients for treatment where it could do more harm than good.
“I think it’s important to make patients aware that there are potentially life threatening downsides to chemotherapy. And doctors should be more careful about who they treat with chemotherapy.”
Professor David Cameron, Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Western General Hospital, added: “The concern is that some of the patients dying within 30 days of being given chemo probably shouldn’t have been given the chemo.
The research was published in The Lancet Oncology.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Commish, I’m Very glad for you and your family that your recovery has been complete and long lasting.
Thank you for sharing what you went through.
Stay well+
RE: “I thank God every day for early detection and the miracle of life.”
AMEN
True. But I or my siblings were never told that. What that means is that someone made the decision to give the minimal dose, knowing full well the possible negative ramifications. What his age the determining factor? Does that mean they thought “oh well, he is so old, why would it matter anyway since he had a good life”, or along those lines. Was is a “mini-death panel” decision? I guess we will never know.
Chemo side effects vary from one individual to the next. Some chemotherapy agents have worse side effects than others, also.
All I can hope was that they did it correctly. It seemed they were behind the 8-ball on a few other things as well, such as not using a PET scan to check for cell migration, but a less accurate method. Once migration had occurred, and especially to the brain, it was over.
What his age the determining factor? Does that mean they thought “oh well, he is so old, why would it matter anyway since he had a good life”, or along those lines. Was is a “mini-death panel” decision?
...
One possibility is they thought a regular dose of chemo would kill him right away. Look at some of the other comments on this thread.
Perhaps they didn’t do the PET scan because they knew there was nothing they could do if the cancer had spread. As it was he lived a couple of more years to 89. Maybe that was the best possible outcome.
Joey was a strong Christian to the end, even putting Indy’s needs before hers, most of us would have clung tightly to our baby, but Joey began to distance herself from Indy, so the end would not be as hard on her. Being that young and being Down’s made a difference too. The Gospel album is beautiful mostly old favorites.
In the Garden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAhsVqbV3pg&list=RDDAhsVqbV3pg#t=0
This one is not on the album, it was my first intro to their music.
The Bible and the Belt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yESgfK5Lqk
BFL.
I have lots to say about this.
My best friend with 3 months to live was talked into a pointless “clinical trial” and had his last conscious moment the day after to the chagrin of his wife and teenage children. Instead of putting his affairs in order and making peace with his family, he was gone before anyone could even say goodbye. Thanks NHS.
Ok Metmom. So what’s your solution?
It’s about a billion to bring a drug to market through preclinical and clinical trial phases within the guidelines of FDA compliance. Nine out of ten compounds in the Onc field never make it there and If they do they are going to be subject to governmental price controls in pretty much every country other than the US and I hope you understand the ramifications of that statement.
The US is the single greatest catalyst for funding the worlds global pharma pipeline. The reason foreign firms are allocating capital to bring new drugs to market is that they know they can sell into our ours. Sans that? You had better be happy with the drugs available now because new ones will be few and far between.
Only ignorant people would get cancer, heart disease and strokes.
That is predominantly true. Non readers rely on fad and commercial myth. They only act when they get the bad news of cancer. They finally throw away the cigarettes, but by then it is too late.
Sorry to be brutal but ignorance can be cured by any willing person. And that is the best cure for cancer. What we don’t know does hurt us.
Cancer Warriors Ping
TheNext, I’m really not up to explaining to you how your arrogance will not make you immune to cancer. I only hope you don’t have to learn that the hard way.
Meanwhile, maybe one of my fellow “illiterate,” “ignorant,” cancer warriors can explain it to you, while I go tend to my husband who was “stupid” enough to have a stroke.
May God bless you with a lesson in humility, and the knowledge that your good fortune doesn’t mean you’re better than everyone else.
Yes I wondered about that too.
This is absolutely false. Radiation and and platinum-based chemotherapies are still used as a first-line treatment of some cancers, that is true. But there is a HUGE shift into targeted treatments: monoclonal antibodies, oral medicines that attack cancer cell pathways, and immuno-oncology drugs are changing the way oncologists treat patients.
I myself, am a benefactor of the targeted therapy cetuximab, also known as Erbitux. The side effect profile is minimal, and very tolerable. I am over three years cancer-free (HNSCC), and the treatment was considered curative, not palliative.
With all due respect, your post is borderline quackery. There are indeed MANY causes of cancer, some caused by genetic reasons, others caused by environmental. Some cancers are a result of both. Additionally, a pancreatic cancer is different from lymphomas; breast cancers are different than leukemias; soft-tissue cancers are different than lung cancers.
Your examples are purely anecdotal, and multiple anecdotes do not equal "data."
Yet there is no cure.
Also how mainstream are the treatments that you are talking whwn we are still talking about chemo as a primary treatment. For as much as we have spent on cancer research over the decades WE SHOULD HVE A CURE! And yet we don’t have a cure.
My husband had lung cancer and we were told he had great chance to be cured or at least have 5 to 10 years more. We chose chemotherapy because we didn’t know what else to do. He had chemo nine times and it destroyed his breathing capacity....the cancer never changed. It was 4 tiny dots on the screen, before and after the chemo. He died from a heart attack, caused by the lack of oxygen. How I wish we had never done the chemo!
Be aware, my friends. Seek other options, if you can.
Dear Anton,
Thank you for sharing this with us.
I am Very sorry for the difficult loss of your friend and what his family went through.
Please stay healthy, well and safe, one and all.
RE: “My best friend with 3 months to live was talked into a pointless “clinical trial” and had his last conscious moment the day after to the chagrin of his wife and teenage children. Instead of putting his affairs in order and making peace with his family, he was gone before anyone could even say goodbye. Thanks NHS.”
I’m with you. I have AML was treated with potent chemo and had a donor stem cell transplant as well. Would have died in 2 weeks without chemo. Chemo is nasty stuff. But, that poison saved my life. I’m over a year post treatment.
God bless you and your wife
In order to get a donor stem cell transplant. Enough high dose chemo is given to kill the bone marrow. It’s the strongest chemo anyone will ever ft at a time. Them the cells are given and the recip starts fresh. I know I just had one.
Yeah we kind of already knew that. Chemo is a last ditch treatment, it is really just trying to kill the “bad” part of you (cancer) before it manages to kill all of you. Trying to fix it when part of your body has turned against you is tough.
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