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The incidence and mortality of malignant tumors is increasing year by year, and “talking about cancer” is the first impression most people have of malignant tumors.
The Penguin Medical Dictionary focuses on cancer prevention and treatment, inviting authoritative oncology experts and medical teams to participate, and selecting quality content from WebMD, the world’s leading medical science website, to provide the public with quality content on cancer prevention and fight against cancer.
Understanding is the first step to conquer cancer. We invited Professor Yilong Wu, an international leader in lung cancer treatment, to explain the common misconceptions of the people.
Misconception 1
Lung cancer is a death sentence
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For lung cancer patients and families, there are some misconceptions about treatment that need to be understood. The first misconception is that “having cancer is a death sentence” or “life sentence”, which is not scientific.
First, not all lung cancers are terminal. If caught early, lung cancer has a chance of being cured. Through surgery, doctors can cure these early lung cancer patients completely. In the last decade or so, clinical experts and researchers have prospectively collected more than 100,000 cases worldwide and have concluded:
If the lung cancer is in stage IA, meaning the tumor is less than 2 cm and localized, then the patient’s 10-year survival rate can be as high as 90% or more. Such patients often die from other diseases such as cerebrovascular disease, in other words, they are completely cured. And for mid-stage lung cancer, which is more severe than early stage but not yet advanced, about 30% of patients can be cured through chemotherapy and radiotherapy and other treatments.
What people worry about most and fear most is advanced lung cancer, and it is true that there has been little clinical progress in treatment for this group. But with the use of targeted therapies and immunotherapy, there are about a dozen percent of patients who can get long-term survival.
In light of these data, lung cancer is not an incurable disease, and it is not a “death sentence. Early-stage disease can be cured, and late-stage disease has a chance to “live with the tumor.
Misconception 2
All patients need to “live with their tumors”
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The concept of “living with the tumor” has created some misconceptions, and some people don’t want to use many aggressive treatments once they hear that they have lung cancer. The first thing you should do is to live with the tumor if the lung cancer is incurable, but for early and mid-stage patients, you should actively fight the tumor and try to achieve clinical cure.
Why do people shy away from cancer treatments? The reason is that all effective methods of fighting cancer are “double-edged swords” that have both advantages and disadvantages. The doctor has to use the “double-edged sword” in the context of the patient’s own situation, on the one hand, to build on the advantages and on the other hand, to overcome the disadvantages and consider using it only when the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
There is also an inaccurate claim that anti-tumor treatments are “killing a thousand enemies and damaging eight hundred others”. The doctor is very cautious about using treatments that do more harm than good. When making choices, patients and families should communicate with their primary care physicians to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different treatments and not easily reject them and lose their chance for a cure.
Misconception 3
Irregular treatment instead of regular treatment
The intractability of cancer is so distressing that some people have invented informal therapies to try to treat cancer through dietary therapy or secret herbal remedies. But be aware that these informal methods have not undergone rigorous clinical validation and need to be treated with caution.
The formal treatments that are now available in the clinic have a certain degree of certainty, for example, chemotherapy can achieve 20-30%, which is scientifically proven. The so-called “secret recipes” are not tested for effectiveness and efficiency.
Misconception 4
Not telling the patient about the disease
Telling or not telling the patient about their cancer is a real issue, and this entanglement is particularly evident in Chinese society. Almost all families with cancer encounter this problem, and most families tend to meet the patient. However, from a medical point of view, both doctors and family members should be honest with the patient and try to do a good job of reassuring the patient and encouraging him/her to come out of the gloom. We should all face the difficulties together and work together to overcome the disease.
Misconception 5
The latest therapy is the best
Anti-tumor treatments are evolving faster and faster, with new therapies such as immunotherapy on the scene and many more experimental therapies underway. However, the clinical choice of treatment needs to be based on each patient’s specific condition, and what is right for you is best. A single-minded search for the new does not bring the desired results, and this is often when proven therapies are more appropriate. Immunotherapy, for example, is not always the best choice for patients when the expected benefit is not obtained beyond the applicable range.