Good morning :)
I want to share our newest Case Based Panel Discussions videos covering Stage I-IV) with the forum. Most of you probably know that oncologists see each case as an individual disease. That's because most all cases have at least one unusual component that can/should be considered when planning. It's where the idea of "the art of oncology" comes into play. When we read statistics it's important to look at the whole spectrum of individuals' outcomes. My husband and my favorite example is he was restaged or recurred after curative chemo/rads which was either a mistake or spine radiation got rid of that last bit of cancer or... The point is he took a treatment break 11 years ago and never progressed (remember, inflamed scar tissue looks the same as cancer on CTs and PETs). That's just the tip of the iceberg of rare and unusual aspects of his journey. When you're a part of individualized planning a trip that interrupts treatment would be discussed and maybe even considered an important aspect of care.
This is where the case based discussions come in handy to us lay people. Here they discuss how they look at an individual and all their differences to create an individualized plan. If you're reading this you've probably also consumed lot's of articles and videos that give outcomes/stats, that perfect number that falls in the middle of a wide range of numbers (people) half on either side. That works well when considering the entire population of that group but consider the individual that you are and don't expect to fall on that median number, sometimes no one does.
I hope you have a good day or good moments in your day, ;)
Janine