Mom had breast cancer and a mastectomy at age 84, but refused follow-up treatment. She continued until she had a stroke at 91. From that time on she was in a care facility, where we discovered her cancer had returned. Metastases were confirmed through biopsy, and even I could palpate several tumor sites around her body. She lived until age 95, then had a series of strokes, and finally died. Her death certificate reads “death caused by metastasized breast cancer” because the cancer return had brought Hospice care into her life. So what killed her? Strokes, not cancer! Did the cancer cause the strokes? Who knows?

Sometimes it’s really hard to tell why a person dies.

On another subject, I find this sentence from your article difficult to understand: “Of course, once orthodox therapy has done its job and treatment discontinued, then the quality of life issue is irrelevant.” Who says? Certainly not the friend who still has balance problems after losing both breasts. Definitely not the one whose heart was damaged by radiation to her left breast. And clearly not the friend who suffers painful neuropathy in her feet because of the chemo. How about the woman who died of lymphoma which was caused by an previous bout of chemo? How about the friend who can no longer lift her arm very high because of radiation to her axilary lymph nodes? I could go on in this vein, but you know the aftereffects of cancer therapy can cause quality of life issues for the rest of life for many.

Remember the quote…”There are 3 types of lies. Lies, damned lies and statistics”.

As you know Doc, there are many ways of supporting an argument/theory. If you go looking for something, or looking to prove something you will probably find it. (I am not suggesting you are doing this. Follow the money)