Five years ago today I was diagnosed with metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer. Until recently, I hadn’t thought much about what this actually meant and how (or if) I should mark the occasion. I’ve concluded there doesn’t seem to be a right or wrong way to handle these type of milestones, frequently referred to as ‘Cancerversaries‘. I’ll therefore settle for a blog!
I don’t tend to dwell on such things as ‘Cancerversaries‘ but I totally get why some people might. There are various types of ‘Cancerversaries‘ that for some, could trigger a mix or range of emotions including gratitude, relief and fear of cancer recurrence or growth. These milestones could be the date of a cancer diagnosis, the end of a particular type of treatment (anniversary of surgery etc) or a period since no signs or symptoms of cancer were reported. Everybody will most likely handle it their own way – and that’s perfectly understandable.
The 5 year milestone appears to be of significance mostly I suspect as it’s a time period very frequently used in prognostic outcomes. When I was researching after my diagnosis, the 5 year figure for metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer wasn’t that great, in fact it looked less favourable than certain more aggressive cancers. Then I picked up that prognostic figures for Neuroendocrine Cancer appeared to be dated and did not take into account better awareness and diagnostics and the introduction of a plethora of new treatments, in particular somatostatin analogues. Things have improved even more in the past 5 years and consequently, I no longer pay much attention to these statistics. I’m actually more influenced by the number of long-term survivors I see out there.
All of that said, I suspect I’ll probably have a little ‘drink’ today simply to mark the fact that I’m still here. Despite my positive outlook, I’m far from being complacent and remain conscious this disease can and does kill. I’ll also therefore pause to think about those who unfortunately didn’t make it. It’s one of the reasons I blog.
Ronny
