Cancer Survivablity in US Candidates for National Office

Survival rates are usually given in percentages and are presented because of the rash of the People in National Politics who suffer from this dreaded condition. I present the 5 year survivability as annotated from the Mayo Clinic and American Cancer Society.

Rudy Giuliani and Prostate Cancer

• The five-year survival rate for prostate cancer is 99 percent. That means that of all men diagnosed with prostate cancer, 99 of every 100 lived for five years after diagnosis. Conversely, one out of every 100 died of prostate cancer within five years.
• from mayo clinic.com

Fred Thompson and Lymphoma

Senator Thompson said he has Indolent Lymphoma and BTW "Indolent" is a Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas (NHLs) or the worst of the the two main lymphomas!
Of the Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas the one described as Indolent are slow growing forms of lymphoma. Indolents encompass what were called low grade and some categories of intermediate grade NHL in the Working Formulation. Indolent NHLs have traditionally not been strongly responsive to conventional cancer therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. So one needs to parse this out.

• You might find that it's easier to understand the numbers in terms of people, not percentages. For example, the five-year survival rate for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is 63 percent. It might be easier to comprehend if you say it this way: For every 100 people diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, 63 survived for at least five years after diagnosis. Conversely, 37 people died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma within five years.
• from mayo clinic.com

• More than 80 percent of people with stage I or stage II Hodgkin's disease survive for 10 years or more with proper treatment. The five-year survival rate for those with widespread Hodgkin's disease is about 60 percent.
• from mayo clinic.com

Tony Snow and Colon Cancer

• Based on a Calculator Information entered:
  Number of positive lymph nodes -- No positive nodes
  Depth of tumor (T stage) -- T3
  Grade of tumor -- Low
  Age -- 49 or younger
• Information generated by the computerized calculator:
  * Five-year recurrence-free survival:
  Baseline prognosis with surgery alone -- 73%
  Prognosis with surgery and adjuvant 5-FU -- 77%(Chemotherapy)
  * Five-year overall survival:
  Baseline prognosis with surgery alone -- 83%
  Prognosis with surgery and adjuvant 5-FU -- 85%v

An example of a less favorable outcome includes the following:

• Information entered:
  Number of positive lymph nodes -- 5 or more
  Depth of tumor (T stage) -- T3
  Grade of tumor -- Low
  Age of patient -- 49 or younger
• Information generated by the computerized calculator:
  * Five-year recurrence-free survival:
  Baseline prognosis with surgery alone -- 24%
  Prognosis with surgery and adjuvant 5-FU -- 43%
  * Five-year overall survival:
  Baseline prognosis with surgery alone -- 40%
  Prognosis with surgery and adjuvant 5-FU -- 56%
• from mayo clinic.org

Senator John McCain and Malignant Melanoma

• The following survival rates are based on the initial clinical stage Malignant Melanoma.
  
  Stage 0: The 5-year relative survival rate is 97%.
  
  Stage I: The 5-year survival rate is between 90 and 95%. The 10-year survival is around 80%.
  
  Stage IIA: The 5-year survival rate is around 78%. The 10-year survival is around 64%.
  
  Stage IIB: The 5-year survival rate is around 63 to 67%. The 10-year survival rate is between 51 and 54%
  
  Stage IIC: The 5-year survival rate is around 45%. The 10-year survival is 32%
  
  Stage IIIA: The 5-year survival rate is around 63%-70%. The 10-year survival is 57%-63%
  
  Stage IIIB: The 5-year survival rate is around 46%-53%. The 10-year survival is around 38%
  
  Stage IIIC: The 5-year survival rate is around 28%. The 10-year survival is 15%-25%Note:
• A recent study of survival rates in patients diagnosed more recently found that they were higher by around 5% to 10% in the stage II and III patients than the numbers given here. But the study did not break the stages into A, B and C, so there are no specific figures for each of these substages.)
  
• Stage IV: The 5-year survival rate for stage IV melanoma is about 18%. The 10-year survival is 14%. It is higher if the spread is to skin or distant lymph nodes. Other risk factors for survival: Another factor that affects survival is age. Stage for stage, older people have shorter survivals. The biggest drop begins at age 70. Recent reports also show that when melanoma occurs in African Americans, although uncommon, survival is shorter than when it occurs in whites. Finally, there have been some studies that show melanoma is more serious if it occurs on a foot, palm, or nail bed. People with HIV infection and melanoma also are a greater risk of dying of their melanoma.
• from cancer.org
  

Elizabeth Edwards and Breast Cancer Survival by Stage

• The numbers below are based on patients diagnosed many years ago and can be expected to be a little different for women diagnosed recently. One reason for this is that the staging system was revised in 2002. Another reason is that treatments have greatly improved since 1998. Because of these improved treatments, the survival rates for women diagnosed now should be better. These numbers come from the American College of Surgeons National Cancer Data Base.

• Stage	5-year Relative Survival Rate
  0	100%
  I	100%
  IIA	92%
  IIB	81%
  IIIA	67%
  IIIB	54%
  IV	20%

• (Survival rates are not yet available for stage IIIC breast cancer because this stage was defined only a few years ago.)
• From cancer.org

God's speed to all of these folks and their families. I pray for the healing of all of you high profile Americans. May God's Archangel Raphael ("God has healed") come to bring his healing balm of LOVE....