Dear All. not sure if this is the right place I should be.
I feel I have a difficult decision and I wonder if anybody can shed some light and interpret my thoughts.
I had one of my kidneys removed back in December and whilst oncology team are confident they have removed all the cancer cells obviously there is the question of future recurrence.
I qualify for an immunotherapy course They are offering the drug Pembrolizumab (not sure if I should be mentioning it by name)
my thoughts are as follows: From what I can understand the improvement to the chances of the cancer reoccurring in offers is only in the region of 4-5% and there is a 1% chance of side effects some of which kill me or lead to life long other problems.
Personally I can't see that the benefit of 4% is anywhere near high enough to take a risk on putting these drugs into my body.
My gut reaction is not to risk it for such a low percentage The hospital need an answer back by early next week Anybody got any thoughts?
Perhaps I should add I am a 60 year old male in good health.
thanks
Richard
Hi Richard001 and a very warm welcome to the Macmillan Community but sorry to hear about your journey to date.
I know from experience having been on my cancer journey for over 25 years with two very rare, hard to treat types of Non Hodgkin’s Lymphomas (one incurable) that navigating this journey can be such a stressful and challenging time but talking with and getting support from people who have walked or are walking the ‘exact same' journey can help a lot.
The Community is actually divided into dedicated Support Groups (Discussion Rooms) so can I recommend that you look to join and put up your own post in our dedicated……..
…….. support group. This group is a safe place to talk to others with a similar diagnosis, treatment experience, to ask questions and get support.
To connect in with the group please click on the link above……. then once the group page opens you will see a [Black - Click to Join - Banner] at the bottom of the page, click in this box and this will then confirm that you have joined the group.
You can then introduce yourself to the group by putting up your very own post by clicking [+ Create new post] or [+] in the top right of the group page.
You can copy and paste the text from this post into your new post.
Do get back to me if you need further help navigating the community and all the best regardless the direction you take.
