between david bowie and this, cancer seems to be the midlife killer of choice . Much process has been made in heart disease, but cancer? Not so much. Once it's spread, you're dead. (2 years usually)
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> Once it's spread, you're dead. (2 years usually)
OK, this is completely wrong. There are several cancers which do not kill THAT fast in the first place, and several that can be cured with pretty good confidence. And it's often a matter of how soon you detect it - if you find it at Stage I, you have much better odds than if you find it at Stage IV.
Please stop generalizations like this.
> if you find it at Stage I, you have much better odds than if you find it at Stage IV.
Very true, however, Stage I cancer is still localized, Stage IV cancer has spread to other organs.
To your point though, Lance Armstrong beat cancer after it had metastasized. He was an exception. He was in stellar condition. I doubt most folks would be able to endure what he could.
For colon cancer, bleeding is sometimes unnoticed or written off as hemorrhoids, so it is ignored and given time to grow and spread. This, I believe, is the chief reason why it's so lethal (there are exceptions, of course). Colon cancer is curable if found early enough. Sharon Osbourne has been cancer free for 13 years only because she caught it early.
those are just the stats. Metastatic cancer is almost always fatal with an average survival of 2 years. That shows why more progress need to be made.
The GP's point is that you should specifically say metastatic cancer if you want to cite that statistic, not generalize it to cancer.
This might be a stupid question, but doesn't "spread" imply metastasis? It just has better rhyming options.
If it's metastatic, you've had it... doesn't quite trip off the tongue.
Sort of. If it's limited to only metastasis, then the original statement "Much process has been made in heart disease, but cancer?" is pretty silly, as it's comparing the worst of cancer cases with all of heart disease.
spread= metastatic
Yes, I understand that, but your comment is easy to read as being about all cancer, and an awful lot of treatment is done prior to it spreading.
Much process has been made in heart disease, but cancer? Not so much. is really the problem, as early stage treatment has gotten vastly more effective over the last 20 years (My father succumbed to metastatic cancer in 1994, I pay some attention to the overall progress in addressing cancer).
How is 69 "midlife?" 40's is midlife. These guys hit their midlife in the 1980's. Bowie's midlife was 'Let's Dance' not 'Blackstar.' Rickman's midlife was 'Die Hard' not 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.'
I suspect we're looking at these guys with their dyed hair, fit bodies, plastic surgeries, etc and thinking they're much younger than they truly are. These are 70 year old. They're old, old men. They died only a few years before the men in my family typically do. They just didn't look very old, nor were any photos release of them looking sick.
I always find it amusing how Charlie Watts gave up on all this with the Stones and just doesn't dye his hair and doesn't dress like a 1970s hipster woman or have a woman's haircut. He has this very dignified look, but certainly looks older than the other Stones. He's easy to spot. If he died tomorrow, no one would act surprised because he, well, looks old.
http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/r/rollingstones-80s-50...
http://www.gq.com/gallery/charlie-watts-style-photos-rolling...
EDIT: HN won't let me reply (goddamn posting too much error), so I'll reply here:
Avg male lifespan in the US is 78. So yes, while your father is an exception, its not remotely typical. Most men don't even hit 80, let alone reach their 90s.
I work with the occasional 70 year. Yes, they are absolutely old men. They can't remotely keep up with guys in their 50s and early 60s, let alone 30s and 40s. There's a reason retirement age is usually pegged at 65.
Umm, my father wasn't an old man at 70. Neither was Bowie or Rickman. My father is old at 92.
My grandfather is very old at 74. There's a 75-year old man in my morning yoga class I had always assumed was in his early 50s.
Age manifests very differently in people.
Each different type has wildly different mortality statistics, but for cancer overall we've seen major progress since the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cancer_mortality_rates...
Prostate cancer has a 0.8% mortality rate in 5 years. Very few types have even 50% five-year mortality rates these days.
> the midlife killer
I wouldn't say that late sixties is midlife; it's well into the end-of-life period.