Up until the stage IV dx,I worried most about dying from a heart attack or stroke. My family history sucks when it comes to hypertension and I've been on meds for mine since I was in my early 30's.

plus I'm a diabetic.

Now,I don't worry about any of it. Just live day to day,take my meds,and hope for the best.

When I die,I just hope it's quick. Would hate to have a stroke and linger.

That's true, of course, but, ...

The article says what my med onco told me at a recheck 2 years ago. I was asking her about long-term follow-up -- should I keep seeing her (and my breast surgeon) every year, or, what?  She said that, for long-term monitoring in women who'd had early-stage BC, it was probably more important to find "a good internist" (her words) than an oncologist.... although she would always be willing to see me, of course. 

It was just that, as we age, we'll find ourselves dealing with all the same medical issues as everybody else who didn't have cancer:  high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes.... all that stuff.  And, she said, for some of us, those problems will be a greater risk than a cancer recurrence.

Actually, I'd kind of hoped more than half of cancer survivors were going to die of something else.

otter

[ETA: I need to acknowledge that I'm speaking from the point of view of someone who had Stage I BC. Those of you with mets have a completely different perspective on this.]

Yes... precipitated, or more likely accelerated?

otter

Why the cause matters (at least to me) is so that medicine can get better at preventing earlier-than-normal deaths.  For example, heart disease in an 85-year-old is most likely part of the natural aging process.  Heart disease serious enough to cause death in a much younger person who was also treated for cancer can technically be attributed to the heart disease, but in most cases the heart disease would not have happened without the cancer treatment..  Unless we acknowledge what's really involved, there's no need to find better treatments that don't cause as much collateral damage.      Deanna   

0

Humm

The cause of death on any death certificate list the immediate cause of death - organ failure, stroke, heart failure etc with the underlying cause being cancer - sometimes.  Sadly, this can warp the true statistics by not listing the cause of death as the cancer itself but complications from the disease, treatments, medications etc.  

Otter - I was a early stager 14 years ago now a stage iv - on this issue, I don't think there is a much different perspective at any stage - simply that at stage iv our hopes are in continuing life as long as possible - but I think we share the same hope as everyone else - living.  I so love you posts always...hope this finds you well...

JMO...LowRider

By analyzing non-cancer deaths among cancer patients, it becomes clear that orthodox therapies often do more harm than good. Cancer treatment can damage the heart and cause deaths from heart failure. This means fewer deaths from cancer. Analysis of the records of 1.2 million cancer cases in the Surveilance, Evaluation and End Results (SEER) database showed that non-cancer deaths accounted for 21 - 37% of all deaths. The authors attributed this effect to the damage caused by cancer treatment (mainly radiotherapy and chemotherapy).

Bacterial infections (with pseudomonas being a very common offender) have been a recognized risk of chemotherapy since the 1940's. In fact, the number one cause of chemotherapy-related mortality (save for the likely probability that it induces mutations in genetically unstable cancer cells to produce a more aggressive cancer cell) is infection, resulting from immunosupression. There are several mechanisms of immunosuppression, the most obvious being the predictable reduction in the white blood cell count following most forms of chemotherapy. The main justification of having medical oncology be a medical specialty unto itself is the expertise it requires to push the envelop with toxic drugs to kill the tumor without killing the patient. The second mechanism of immunosuppression is a reduction in lymphocytes and plasma cells, which also assist in fighting infections.

It's analogous to the old medical specialty of syphilology. There was a big medical specialty called syphilology which existed because of the expertise it took to give toxic cocktails of the various (mostly ineffective drugs). The formulas were quite complicated, but they persisted until the discovery of penicillin, which finally killed off not just the syphillis spirochete but also the specialty of siphilology. I would hopefully expect that something like this will happen with medical oncology, and I would be thrilled if it happened while I was still around to see it.

The article is big on supposition. If we have other health issues, cancer treatment will surely complicate the treatment and outcome. It's not easy to coordinate different medical specialities but that becomes our challenge to build a team that communicates and works together for the best outcome.



My DH elected a knee replacement recently. He has an extensive heart history. we did everything we could to see that both Drs communicated. While on home health care the nurse decided to stop the Coumadin but no one bothered to talk to the cardiologist who was horrified that he had not been put back on Plavix. I almost lost him to a heart attack due to the med screw up.



We have to stay on top of it for ourselves and our loved ones.

I almost died of c-diff.  But, I have Stage IV cancer.  I got c-diff as a result of antibiotics combined with low white counts and a hospitalization where I was infected.

What would have killed me?  C-Diff would have been listed, but if I never had cancer, I wouldn't have gotten c-diff.  The true underlying cause would be cancer.

Rarely are death certificates accurate as there is always something underlying it.  My brother-in-law died of a heart attack, which was on his death certificate.  He also weighed 450 pounds at about 5 feet 5.  Obesity and a love of McDonalds was not listed on the death certificate.

Chemo and other cancer treatments do cause risks, that may or may not hasten death down the road.  They are certainly working hard on getting rid of machne gun treatments like chemo and finding more targeted treatments, but they aren't there yet.  But, the cause of death listed on the death certificate is the immediate cause of death, not everything you did in life that lead up to that point.

Alcoholics die in car accidents, and their cause of death is trauma, even though it's really alcoholism, etc.