Survival Rates Cancer Type

When some average mope at a party learns that I blog about brain tumors, I get questions, a lot of particularly morbid questions like:

• “How bad is brain cancer compared to other cancers?”
• “How long does ______(our friend)  have to live?”
• “What’s the worst cancer to have?”

I rarely know how to answer these questions because it’s hard to think of a brain tumor or cancer that isn’t bad and I know almost nothing about the victim's situation.

I just found the Cancer Research UK website, though, which is helpful in providing information on how to compare the different cancers.  The average survival rates give everybody – victims, caregivers, friends & family – have some vague idea of what to expect (although, as with most everything in life, your survival rate may differ).

If you go to this website, poke around a bit, there’s a lot of good information.

Here’s a link: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/survival/common-cancers-compared#heading-Zero

John

PS - I find this whole business of comparing cancers and deciding whose friend/relative/significant other has the worse cancer to be particularly idiotic.  Here’s my excerpt from my book, “Chief Complaint, Brain Tumor” - http://www.chief-complaint.com/ - about such inane conversations:

“The phrase “brain tumor” is scary and difficult to slide into any casual,

over-the-fence-with-the-neighbor conversation. I imagined the following

conversation when running into a friend at Starbuck’s:

“Hey Fred, how’s it going?”

“Great! Our daughter Mary just made the high school jazz band as the

bass player, the only student to ever be picked as a sophomore.”

“Congratulations!”

“And you, how’s it going?”

“Well, I’ve just been diagnosed with a brain tumor—the tumor’s as big

as your wife’s fist.”

“No shit. Well…how about them Bears?”

And with your more competitive acquaintances, I could imagine the

following conversation with Ashton:

“John, how are you? It’s good to see you.”

“I’ve just been diagnosed as having a brain tumor.”

“Really, what kind?”

“It’s a Grade I meningioma. It’s about as big as your fist.”

“Well, my brother Dave has a Grade III metastatic brain tumor. It’s a

Gliomas type of brain tumor. We’re very worried about it infiltrating adjacent

brain tissue. You should be grateful that you only have a Grade I meningioma!”