How effective is chemotherapy for breast cancer? I wonder how many women ask their oncologists these questions, and if they do, what would the answers be like?
a) Without chemotherapy what percentage of people died or would die from breast cancer?
b) With chemotherapy what percentage of people are cured or would be cured?
c) What is meant by cure?
Try and search the answers from the internet and see if you can get anything. There is a great chance that you will go on a merry go round trip! I experienced exactly just that and was terribly disappointed. Thousands of articles are written about breast cancer but I fail to find the clear-cut answers to the above questions.
And once again reference to the only credible study I've been able to find on the subject -
"the study concluded that overall, chemotherapy contributes just over 2 percent to improved survival in cancer patients. Yet despite the mounting evidence of chemotherapy's lack of effectiveness in prolonging survival, oncologists continue to present chemotherapy as a rational and promising approach to cancer treatment."
"...in lung cancer, the median survival has increased by only 2 months [during the past 20 years, ed.] and an overall survival benefit of less than 5 percent has been achieved in the adjuvant treatment of breast, colon and head and neck cancers."
"...these figures "should be regarded as the upper limit of effectiveness" (i.e., they are an optimistic rather than a pessimistic estimate)."
So we have inconclusive anecdotes and inconclusive biased studies. But there is one independent credible study, and that one basically states that for all the hellish and potentially deadly side-effects, you have about a 2% chance (on the OPTIMISTIC side) of chemo helping you survive another 5 years after cancer.
Not a good track record in my opinion, especially since it's basically the "go-to" method of treating cancer. Heck, the placebo effect probably has a better track record, and you don't have to suffer the side effects.
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