Angela’s Dying Wish
Angela’s Dying Wish Did anybody else see this programme last night on Channel 4? This poor woman was dead within approx. 4 months of being diagnosed! She refused chemo as she had a film to make in Spain but was put on Letrazole which did nothing much.
What I can’t understand is why surgery was not considered, can one be too far gone even for a mastectomy? Her BC must have been incredibly advanced, I wish they’d given more details medically but they seem to concentrate on the more emotive aspects of cancer!
I agree I too wish there had been a clearer factual account of Angela’s cancer. It does no one any good to ignore the factual information…makes cancer even more scary than it is.
I guess that Angela was diagnsoed with secondary spread at the same time as her primary and in such cases surgery is often not used. Sometimes death does follow very quickly in such cases though 4 months and 7 days is fairly unusual.
I think thaere are many rational decisions for refusing chemo and respect anyone doing so, but an unfortunate consequence of the way this refusal was represented in this programme was that the focus was on her primary cancer rather than the mets which would have actually killed her.
I thought the programme raised important issues about assisted suicide (I would like to see more discussion of this difficult but crucial issue for people with terminal illnesses) and also portrayed a fantastic woman facing death head on and with integrity. Painful to watch at times but I’m glad I stayed up.
Jane
Hi SueBee, I only caught the last 5 mins of this programme. Was Angela diagnosed at stage 4? If so a mastectomy would not help and an operation might cause even further spread. Where were her secondaries? Wish I’d seen the programme.
I was diagnosed with stage 4 from the onset in 2003. I have bone mets but I’ve been in remission for just over a year now, a good response to Arimidex. I’ve had no surgery and so far no chemo. My bc has been kept in check with Tamoxifen and now Arimidex. This is not unusual, lots of mets er+ patients can have their bc kept in check by hormonals for a long time without resorting to chemo especially if the mets are in the bone.
In the 3 years I’ve been living with this I’ve got to know many other women with mets, some have only lasted a few months after their secondaries diagnosis while others are still here years later. A woman at my local support group is still very much here and has been for nine years now, she has bone mets.
Belinda…x
Just to add I haven’t refused chemo, this was my oncs first choice of treatment. Hormonal treatment will hopefully help me live a while yet. I will have to have chemo when I have run out of hormonal options or if I develop progression elsewhere.
disappointed with programme I was very disappointed with the programmes lack of balance.It was very one sided with only her view. I wanted to know how long she had had symptoms for before she went to her dr. She seemed like a person who lived alot in denial and I wonder if she had had symptoms for a very long time before she went for advice. It must have been very advanced for surgery not to be an option. Also the programme said that the cancer had gone into her arm when in fact it was lymphodema and the cancer was in her lymph nodes. I felt very sorry for her at times but I can’t help wondering if she had sort help earlier things may have turned out differently. Also I know this was a personal story but I would have liked balance with someone giving the opposing view. She said Why me? alot and life isn’t fair but my atitude with bc has been why not me? and life isn’t ment to be fair . My worry is that anyone just diagnosed with bc would have their anxiety levels raised by this programme as diagnosis to death being 4 months is very rare, which increases my thought she had symptoms for a long time. Channel 4 could have used this programme for some public health info to highlight the importance of early detection and reporting and how to examine breast. As it was it was only one womans personal story opportunites were lost.
karelyn
Hi Karelyn, lots of us on the Secondaries forum have been diagnosed with our mets from the onset. I think some cancers spread before they are even palpable.
appreciate your info Belinda
I appreciate what you are saying, do you know how many who are diagnosed straight away with secondaries are unable to contol symptoms and die within 4 months. From what I have read secondaries can be controlled for sometimes lengthy periods of time even years. That was why I felt the programme could have explained Angela’s personal condition a bit more and explained why in her case this was not possible. I fear the programme may have frightened some people without that explanation
karelyn
Hello again Karelyn, I only know three people who have died within months. But I know and have met up with many women who have had secondaries for years and who look well and have a good quality of life. I have never had to take any pain killers for my bone mets.I thought I’d missed all the diagnosis facts as I only caught the end of the programme but sounds as though it was all very sketchy.
Take Care…Belinda…x
Didn’t watch it Too many deaths lately, so wasn’t up to it. Is it just me or do these things come in waves?
Anyway, I just am writing in because recent research from MD Anderson suggests that removing primaries may help patients with stage IV breast cancer:
From:
Effect of Primary Tumor Extirpation in Breast Cancer Patients Who Present With Stage IV Disease and an Intact Primary Tumor.
‘surgery was associated with a trend toward improvement in overall survival (P=.12; relative risk, .50; 95% confidence interval, .21-1.19) and a significant improvement in metastatic progression-free survival (P=.0007; relative risk, .54; 95% confidence interval, .38-.77).’
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?
cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16614878&dopt=Citation
I agree with Karelyn, I think also that Angela had been living in denial and may well have ignored symptoms for a long time. To refuse chemo when it could prolong her life and then complain ‘why me’ seemed a little contrary!
I had chemo and yes it’s not nice but it’s not as bad as Angela made out, saying that everybody had warned her against it. If it saves your life, bring it on!
I also think that it was not in the film makers’ interest to go into more specific medical details for fear they would turn off viewers, where as BC survivors are often keen for details! Also if it was Angela controlling the content perhaps she did not want it known that the BC had been found so late as it put her in a bad light - perhaps I am being uncharitable.
I am going to check the Channel 4 website to see if one can leave comments.
Sue
Hi Christine, I too had read this info, I’m thinking of perhaps mentioning it at my next onc appointment.
Belinda…x
I think the speculation as to whether Angela was in denial and ignored symptoms is perhaps speculating too far.
We will never know whether or not this was the case and does it matter? It shouldn’t make any difference to our feelings of sympathy and empathy towards someone dying of breast cancer.
As people who’ve had breast cancer ourselves, of course there are questions that we would have liked answered, but weren’t covered. The programme previews never stated that this was going to cover the medical background to Angela’s cancer, nor that it was designed to raise awareness and encourage people to look out for symptoms.
Some of you are obviously annoyed about lack of balance but I don’t think that would have been appropriate. The programme was previewed as one woman’s experience of facing death and having to make choices about treatment and the sort of death she wanted and that is exactly what we got. I believe Angela made the programme to explore the experience of dying, not the experience of breast cancer.
Yes Daphne I think you’re right…this was indeed a programme about the experience of dying and we should applaud it as such because there are so few and dying is so little talked about in the west.
Suggestions that Angela was in denial smack slightly of the tired suggestion that women are somehow to blame if they get breast cancer and particularly to blame if they spoil the fun for the rest of us by dying sooner than we are comfortable with. (Myth demands that we put up a jolly good battle and 4 months is just not good enough…).
I don’t think it was that I wanted full medical details but just once during the programme to have bit of an explanation about her diagnosis. A few words in the voice over would have done it. And would have helped me focus on the dying rather than feeling slightly puzzled about the progress of her cancer. But maybe my wish for this is part of my own denial of the starkness of her death…I think we all live in denial to an extent…its one way we have of coping.
I’m glad Angela allowed this programme to be made…it overwhelmingly is about her strength and honesty in the face of death
Jane