Regards cancer and life expectancy,

When I did peadiatrics, I was told that if you recieved treatment
for cancer and had not had any recurrance by twice the age of
symptoms you were considered cured.  (I.E. no regrowth in the time
it took for the cancer to from from some stem cell somewhere)

ie., if leukaemia at 4 years old, and treated and in remission
for another 4 years, then by age 8 you were likely to have been
cured.  (I am happy to stand corrected on this one if others
know better, peadiatric oncology isnt my strongest area).

Of course, side effects of treatment still remain, and may cause
other problems in later life.

I {*filter*}s, this doubling time is not a useful measure of cure
and so the 5 year survival is taken as a measure of cure, as
if it hasent grown back in 5 years it probably isnt there at
all.  Of course, some cancers are known to grow slowly and
so a 10 year survival is used.

Same statements about side effects of therapy apply, and of
course in {*filter*}s other cancers may be present and also in
the elderly overall mortality rises rapidly with age so that
a cure from cancer may not prevent death from a stroke in
6 months time, if you take my point.

Yours,

Michael

--
Automatic Disclaimer:
The views expressed above are those of the author alone and may not
represent the views of the IBM PC User Group.
--
The above opinion is not that of the IBMPCUG.
In fact, it may not be my opinion, either.