This hasn’t been offered and I can’t find the courage to ask - do I really want to know?!!!
Apparently all info is fed into computer-but surely everyone differs so much so even with all details it must still be very general.
If they put age,general health,treatment etc etc I still feel it must be general. Some people have a very positive outlook on life, some very negative, different lifestyles and so on.
Would be interesting to have other thoughts on this.
Hi Poodlepatch
What’s the saying - ‘d***mned lies and statistics’! The prognosis stats are tailored to your situation - including your specifix dx, etc, but they are still just stats - not absolutes or certainties.
It is a very personal decision with no right or wrong answer. Personally I wanted to know - I’d rather be scared of the known than the unknown. Most people find uncertainty stressful - while the stats don’t give you certainties, they do provide an idea of what you might be up against.
If I didn’t ask, I thought I’d always be wondering. If I did, then no matter how bad, I know what I was POTENTIALLY dealing with. Once I had examined that knowledge, put it into context, rationalised it, etc. I could then ‘put it in a box’ and put it in the furthest, dusty cupboard at the back of my mind - to be taken out and re-examined when I chose.
Good luck
Dx
When someone gives you survival statistics, always ask where the tail ends.
While the average might be so and so, it could be that some are surviving for many, many years.
Hi I didn’t want to know my prognosis even if it were 99% chance of it being gone there’s still that 1% isn’t there (pessimistic I know lol).I know people with excellent prognosis who’s cancer returns and I know those with a bad prognosis and are well years on.I’ve learnt from others that we just have to hope we fall on the right side of the statistics.And that’s all they are statistics.
Wishing all the best Melxx
Don’t forget that statistics are based on large numbers of people. If, say, there are 1,000 women with an 80% chance of surviving 10 years, then in 10 years’ time you would expect about 800 to be alive and 200 to have died. As an individual you cannot survive 80%, you are either one of the 800 or one of the 200. So having an 80% chance of survival is not much comfort to the 200.
If you want to look up some statistics you can try adjuvant online. If you register with the site you have to pretend to be a doctor - as the site is for oncologists making treatment decisions - but no-one follows up on this - and then you put in your own results and treatment regime and it will give you 10 year survival statistics (or rather I assume they are projected survival rates as I don’t think the latest chemos have not been around long enough to give actual rates). However, you must be prepared for whatever you see there, good or bad, before you try it.