Why was cancer not spotted?

Errata

Cancers in young people are often spectaculary aggressive and rapid.
It's not uncommon to develop one type of cancer and be successfully treated and then for another entirely different type of cancer to develop afterwards which may be treatable or not.

pops5588

I just can't get my head around how it can go completely undetected to the point where they can't even treat it when he was still going into the hospital to be checked over for the first bout of it. Sorry, I just can't.

securityguy

pops5588 wrote: »

We were all very angry, how can someone go from being completely all clear to the point where they are making plans for their life and then future, and then suddenly have a month to live?? I

Because cancers in young people of often as aggressive as they are rare. The idea seems to have got about that there are cures for cancer, and all we need to do is convince the NHS to screen frequently enough and intervene quickly enough and it'll all be peachy. If only that were true.

To read threads like this, doctors have all been brainwashed somewhere around FT1 to deliberately withhold tests and treatments that they know would extend or improve life, for nefarious reasons that aren't quite articulated (it's so hard to remember if all doctors are conspiring to spend money on useless treatments because they are in the thrall of big pharma, or are conspiring to withhold treatment because of NHS funding).

Cancer's difficult. It's difficult to detect reliably, and it's difficult to treat. The treatments have major risks and side-effects, and therefore treating people who don't have cancer will do them active harm. The treatments are also much more likely to mitigate and delay than cure. Even some of the tests are not risk free, and some of them, in a cruel irony, can cause cancer.

It's very easy to say that once someone is dying of cancer that it was obvious that they had cancer earlier than it was detected, but cancers are (in relative terms) rare. A typical GP will see one new case of testicular cancer in their career, and testicular cancer is a relatively common condition as cancers go. The problem is: what about all those other people that had the same symptoms, but didn't have cancer?

If you think you can distinguish them in advance in a way that doesn't end up increasing lifetime X-Ray load unacceptably, and doesn't result in giving complex and risky treatments to people who don't have cancer, then your Nobel Prize for Medicine awaits.

In the meantime, assuming that doctors, as individuals and as a profession, don't like to see people dying and are doing their best, isn't a bad idea.

mazza111

pops5588 wrote: »

I just can't get my head around how it can go completely undetected to the point where they can't even treat it when he was still going into the hospital to be checked over for the first bout of it. Sorry, I just can't.

Brain tumour symptoms can be ridiculously bizarre though as I pointed out with my nephew. 3 years of being treated for a hip problem Didn't complain of headaches, just his baddy leg. He started fitting just before his 3rd birthday, hence why they did the scan.

I do however believe that GPs should be reading up more on rarer conditions. My own GP told me a fortnight ago that HMS doesn't cause pain. I asked him if he'd like me to dislocate his finger to see how much it hurt. Pain is part of the diagnosis for HMS :wall:

To the poster with a great GP, I envy you They are worth their weight in gold

CH27

pops5588 wrote: »

I just can't get my head around how it can go completely undetected to the point where they can't even treat it when he was still going into the hospital to be checked over for the first bout of it. Sorry, I just can't.

Cancer is a b*stard disease that can strike hard & fast or can creep slowly around the body.
There is no rhyme or reason to cancer & we will never get our heads around it imo.

kaya

My late father spent two years visiting his GP explaining that he couldn't eat properly and was living on a diet of slush, they told him he probably had ulcers and to change his diet and buy some milk of magnesia , he was then prescribed something to give him an appetite despite claiming that he was indeed hungry but couldn't eat , enter the locum doctor who immediately sent him to the hospital for tests, terminal stage whatever stomach cancer and dead within 3 months .my own GP a few years back told me I could cut my fentanyl patches in half to get a half dose , good job I researched it on the Interweb or I would be dead now if I had followed his advice. When the say a doctor " practices" they aren't kidding

floss2

mazza111 wrote: »

...I do however believe that GPs should be reading up more on rarer conditions. My own GP told me a fortnight ago that HMS doesn't cause pain. I asked him if he'd like me to dislocate his finger to see how much it hurt. Pain is part of the diagnosis for HMS :wall:...

And having a niece with HMS, I know that you get a lot of pain.

Errata

I think it's fair to say there are superb doctors, good ones, good enough ones, acceptable ones and poor ones.
If a patient feels they are receiving poor to the point of life dangering healthcare from a doctor, the remedy lies in their own hands. Formally complain or move to another practice.

mumps

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Over twenty years ago a similar thing happened with my son, he was only seven and had a tummy-ache - appendicitis diagnosed and within an hour having surgery to remove an appendix that was just about to burst, a marvellous job.

It's not the hospital I have no faith in, it's the GPs (although in my son's case it was an out-of-hours GP who sent him to hospital). Someone I know, who is in a position to know these things, said that GPs are there purely to keep people away from the consultant and to serve the drug companies. I do hope they are not correct.

It was the out of hours GP who sent my son to hospital, I can't praise them enough as the fast response probably saved his life.

I, my husband and children have had referrals to various consultants over the years. If my GP is supposed to be keeping us away from the Consultants he is doing a very bad job.

Bennifred

Errata wrote: »

I think it's fair to say there are superb doctors, good ones, good enough ones, acceptable ones and poor ones.
If a patient feels they are receiving poor to the point of life dangering healthcare from a doctor, the remedy lies in their own hands. Formally complain or move to another practice.

I agree with you. The problem is they make you doubt yourself sometimes (not just GPs - consultants too)