Although everyone has to face death sooner or later, when you are unfortunately terminally ill and facing the threat of death, I am afraid it is hard to take it lightly. As a doctor, when facing cancer patients and their families, I always hear the same question: How long can I live with cancer? The question of how long one can survive with cancer is indeed a difficult one to answer simply. There are many factors involved in the answer. First, the degree of malignancy of cancer determines the mileage of life. The most important feature of this abnormal growth is that it grows fast and can metastasize, and its growth rate is much faster than the normal tissues of human body, which often causes death due to compression, infiltration and seizure of normal nutrition. The malignant degree of cancer is directly related to the differentiation degree of the cells from which the growing tissue originates. Generally speaking, tumors with high degree of differentiation have slow growth and low malignancy and slow metastasis; those with low degree of differentiation have high malignancy and early metastasis. For example, papillary thyroid cancer has low malignancy and better treatment effect, but undifferentiated thyroid cancer and medullary carcinoma have high malignancy, and most of them have severe local invasion and distant metastasis by the time the diagnosis is established, and the mortality rate is high. For example, small cell lung cancer is the most malignant among lung cancers, and more than half of the patients have cancer cells in their blood when they are diagnosed, among which about 30%-40% have brain metastasis and about 50% have abdominal lymph node metastasis. Therefore, the “good” and “bad” tumor cells determine the growth rate, metastasis rate and treatment effect of tumor. Thus, it is easy to understand why cancer of the same organ has different treatment results and different life mileage, and the pathological type of tumor cells is one of the deciding factors. Second, early diagnosis and treatment are the prerequisite Early diagnosis and early treatment are the magic weapons for us to overcome cancer. With the update of medical equipment, cytology and immunology progress, early detection and diagnosis of cancer has become a reality, but what is not optimistic is the carelessness and carelessness of patients themselves. They only treat head swelling as inflammation, take some antibiotics indiscriminately, have blood in stool as hemorrhoids, have stomach discomfort as ulcer, have blood in sputum as tuberculosis, etc., and refuse to receive regular and systematic examination and treatment. Only after a long period of time, they came to the oncology specialist, but at that time, their condition was already late and they lost good treatment opportunity, so they could only seek the second best palliative treatment, which made the possible cure become incurable. Therefore, having a tumor is not equal to a death sentence, and early detection and late detection will make a world of difference. To cure cancer, the first prerequisite is to completely kill the malignant tumor cells. At present, one of the more mature and effective methods for cancer treatment is radical surgery; the other is radiotherapy and chemotherapy; the third is local treatment of cancer; the fourth is conservative palliative and symptomatic treatment in internal medicine. There are also Chinese herbal medicine and biological therapy. The strategy of cancer treatment is from invasive treatment to minimally invasive treatment to non-invasive treatment. Our hospital has different special treatments for different cancers according to their pathological processes. For example, for liver cancer, surgical precision hepatectomy, liver transplantation, as well as interventional therapy and high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy are adopted; for pancreatic cancer, radical resection, high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy and thermal perfusion therapy are adopted. In clinical practice, there are many patients who believe in partial prescriptions, ancestral secret recipes, or are afraid of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and treat haphazardly in small clinics and other places for a period of time, and only refer to specialized hospitals when their disease is not controlled, metastasis or recurrence occurs, which undoubtedly delays the treatment and the effect is certainly not ideal. Cancer patients should realize that surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy should be organically combined in order to achieve the best effect. 4. Enhancing one’s own immunity is fundamental In the process of cancer treatment, the most important thing is to protect the patient’s immune function, that is, to protect the patient’s resistance. Almost all treatment methods have an impact on patients’ immune function, and the decline of immune function is one of the reasons for the resurgence of residual cancer cells. From the clinical point of view, the evaluation of patient’s immune function can be done by observing the general condition of the patient, such as physical strength, physique, appetite, weight, sleep, mental status, etc., which is summarized as the quality of patient’s survival. In general, the patient’s initiative should be mobilized, confidence should be increased, physical fitness should be enhanced, immune enhancers should be applied appropriately, and nutrition should be strengthened. And the best way is to take the Chinese medicine to support the righteousness. Our Chinese medicine mainly focuses on supporting the righteousness and fighting cancer, which can well support the righteousness of human body and protect the immunity. Protecting immunity is to improve the fighting power against cancer and prolong life. V. Preventing cancer recurrence and metastasis is the goal Cancer can kill people because of its invasiveness, recurrence and metastasis. The key to prevent recurrence is to obtain eradication during the first treatment and regular follow-up after treatment. Cancer recurrence often occurs within five years after treatment, especially within two to three years. It is certainly important to have follow-up examinations within this period, but regular follow-up examinations are lifelong, and the closer to the end of treatment, the shorter the interval between follow-up examinations should be. Patients and their families should understand that “curative surgery” and “cure” are relative terms, and they should not think that everything is fine after treatment. It can be said that to prevent recurrence and metastasis is to prevent death. To every patient, there is no fear in the face of cancer, and of course, it is very painful inside, but since it is a fact, it is useless to worry and suffer. The only way to survive is to actively cooperate with the treatment and build up the confidence to overcome the disease. In fact, cancer is a chronic disease. If someone asks “how long can I live with cancer”, I think the answer is written in the patient’s body and the initiative is in the patient’s hands. The notion that cancer is incurable has passed, and it is a consensus that cancer is not equal to death. How long is life? It is all up to you to pursue it.