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A member asked:
Why do people with cancer often live longer or shorter than what their prognosis is?
3 doctors weighed in across 2 answers
Cancer prognosis: I don't think it is a fair statement. Few patients survival does not follow the average survival curves as there are lot of confounding factors not just the type of cancer and type of chemo they receive. Clinical events like infection, bleeding, blood clots can change the outcome of some patients or if they cannot tolerate a treatment plan, their survival gets affected.
Answered 3/28/2013
5.2k views
Averages: So kind of by definition, when people think about a prognosis they are quoted an average or median. If it is a median then by definition half of the people will live longer and half of the people will live shorter. Generally speaking unless death is eminent (<2-3 days), doctors tend to be very bad at predicting how long people have to live.
Answered 12/10/2015
5.2k views
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