My Mum now.
Treatment starting very soon
Incredible service and support from the NHS so far.
Say another small prayer if you can.
Really sorry to hear that, and also the rest here, only just seen this thread.
Lost my father a few years back after a long painful but enormously brave struggle, made worse because by that time I had moved over into oncology (still there) and towards the end I was actually heavily involved in the design of a trial he wasn't in the end suitable for. Very hard to separate work from personal life, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't change me.
No consolation to anyone suffering I know, but having worked in clinical development for a number of years, sat in congress sessions, and having reviewed a hell of a lot of research data , think it's safe to say we really are on the cusp of a new era, including multi-targeted drugs, immunotherapy being used now and a bit further down the line, gene therapy. We have a much greater understanding (more than half the battle) of what causes cancer and of all the multiple factors involved in its progress, all that is left to do is refine techniques and formulate new agents to stop it. Plus identifying latent types which is where screening comes in.
At the moment, it is all about progression-free survival, keeping patients alive until a newer, better, more effective treatment is available, and having them enjoy a reasonable quality of life. In luckier cases where the cancer type is indolent (slow growth) and doesn't metastasise, remission is the goal. Shrink, starve, kill.
Impossible to put a timescale on it, but at the current rate of development, I'd say we're looking at 5 years for even some of the most aggressive types to mostly be considered non-fatal, and 10 years for us to be using the word 'curative' when discussing treatments. So there is hope, I firmly believe that.