I understand that. When my wife got the diagnosis last October you instantly assume its a death penalty because of the cultural significance associated with the word. It really is the C word. In our case it took about 3 weeks of further scans , biopsies and tests before we knew the extent of the spread. The tumour itself was 8x5 cm (ie big) and it was an aggressive invasive type which grows and spreads fast. We were just waiting for the results of test after test expecting to hear she was riddled with it......each successive test came back with, it's not in the bone, not in the organs, not in the lymph until finally it seemed it was just the primary tumour and despite its nasty nature we appeared to have caught it in time. Chemo and surgery have done the rest and so (for now at least) we're lucky.
But that 3 weeks between diagnosis and full extent of scans was the longest of our lives. She's mid 40's, I'm early 50's. We have 2 kids at junior school and I thought I'd be raising them on my own. I have the utmost respect for those who have the disease and undergo the treatment which is not pleasant by a long stretch and yet show immense dignity and courage. It is nothing short of a terrifying experience.
The silver lining is that despite the feeling of doom associated with the cultural expectation that the word carries, modern treatments are not what they were 20 years ago...they are phenomenally better and survival outcomes are very substantially improved for almost all types. They also continue to improve at a geometric rate and as I said before it's only a matter of time before, particularly the geneticists crack the true causes.
Recent research into prostate cancer has shown unusual behaviour of the telomeres which are the ends of our chromosomes. In normal people, they get shorter with age as the cells divide normally to replace dead cells. In cancer cells the telomeres start getting longer again and this looks to be a really excellent early warning for male prostate cancer because this genetic indicator occurs before tumour growth starts. If that technology can be turned into a screening programme, men could be diagnosed as "at risk" before they get any actual tumour growth.
Similar studies are happening with many of the other cancers because of course the financial outcome of any pharmaceutical cure will make the drug company rich beyond measure.
So there is good reason to think positively for the future. I appreciate all the well wishes because it genuinely does lift the spirit and this disease is an absolute ***** for lowering the spirit on so many levels.