Good Cancer/Bad Cancer?

Sometimes you hear some cancers referred to as a "good" cancer or a "bad" cancer - it seems my cancer, womb or endometrial, is regarded as a "good" cancer because if its caught early, as mine was, then its treatable and the long term survival rate is very good; around 80% will survive the magic 5 years!

Other cancers are not so good. Some are quite aggressive and not very easy to diagnose until a much later stage, meaning that the long term, even the short term survival rates are very low!

Getting a cancer diagnosis is often a hard thing to accept and patients often spend ages agonising over the "why me?" question.

Imagine how much harder it must be to have a much loved family member get a diagnosis - especially when the diagnosis is of a rare, aggressive and possibly inoperable "bad" cancer!

Cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer is rare, with around 1,000 new cases each year in the UK. The outlook is apparently not very good, as its rarely diagnosed at an early stage so by the time it is finally diagnosed the outcome is very poor and its usually inoperable.

The feeling of helplessness that I feel as this cancer takes hold of someone I love is very hard to deal with. Knowing that the outcome is far from being a positive one makes it even harder to bear.

As with all cancers, the answer lies with awareness and research. Hopefully this will mean that less people will get this type of cancer and those that do get it will have a better outcome!

Might well be a bit late for my Mom but while we have hope, there is always a chance!

UPDATE: Sadly, Mom passed away on 5th Dec, just 5 weeks from getting her diagnosis. She is sadly missed by all of us. xx