What I've Learned About Modern Medicine

For all of the advances that we have seen in medicine, there are still so many things that we do not have a handle on.  Doctors are not perfect;  They rely on historical odds when suggesting treatment plans and diagnosing unexpected things.  With this in mind, I thought about the previous 9 months and what we have experienced.

• Of all breast cancers diagnosed in the United States, somewhere between 10-20 percent are triple negative.  That means that only 1 in 5 receive this diagnosis.


• Of those treated for triple negative cancer, approximately 34 percent of patients experience a recurrence, with an average time of relapse being 2.6 years.  So, for every 100 people diagnosed in the US, approximately 20 are triple negative.  And of those 20, around 6 have a recurrence. And how many of those while on chemotheraphy?

With those two statistics, it's easy to see why the doctors did not expect the happening in the breast to again be cancer.  Especially, while taking one of the cancer drugs commonly prescribed.