[quote name='h3llbring3r']Here's my anecdotal TMI and soap box about cancer/chemo:
FTR: My mother-in-law lived 4 years after being diagnosed with stage four lung (NSCLC).
There are lots of variables to it, oncology is more like voodoo and art than any other field of medicine. With lung: It depends if it is NSCLC vs SMLC; Also each cancer is as unique as it's hosts DNA, many people react differently to the many different types of chemo.
My Dad was also diagnosed with stage four colon, with liver metastasis. He lived three and 1/2 years on chemo. Ironically, it was complications from diabetic renal failure and heart calcification that killed him (the cancer didn't help mind you).
Both were diagnosed within a year of each other; Without the chemo neither one would have seen: my wife and I buy a house, my daughter born, my wife make partner . . . etc.
My Dad weathered chemo like it was just a bump in the road, he was a Vietnam era vet though. My mother-in-law did really good up until it metastasized to her brain and eye, then she went down-hill from normal to nonsensical within a month.
The only time I would tell a patient not to even try chemo would be if they were in their late 80's+ and/OR have other systemic medical failures/complications.[/quote]Well my grandmother was in her late seventies, so i agree with the age thing.