Given that the nature of my own cancer means I would be unable to have treatment for any other cancer, I've decided against continuing routine screening for others.
Is this an issue other people have considered, and what did you decide?
After I was diagnosed with RCC I went through a stage where I questioned the point of regular cancer screening, bowel, breast, smear test. Because I'd already been advised I had cancer, I just saw it all as one, not as separate cancers. I thought I'd be unlucky to get another one. I saw it like a double jeopardy issue. I think I asked my onco and he clarified cancer could impact any part of my body. It made sense. I then didn't view screening in the same way, that I already had the disease it was designed to detect.
This is my this my third different cancer, it's incurable, and - most importantly - because my platelets, red blood cells and neutrophils don't work, no treatment options would be available to me for any new cancer. Knowing I had a new cancer for which I'd be offered no treatment would only add stress to my life.
