Cancer comes back after it has been successfully treated. I cannot say it recurs because it may not be the same organ that is affected but other organs.
Lucky are those who completely survived the disease for a long time. Different types of cancer have different survival rates.There are treatable and there are terminal. Even the people who can avail of the latest and most expensive treatment are not sure of their complete healing.
Like Steve Jobs of APPLE.
In 2004, Jobs disclosed that he had been diagnosed with this rare form of pancreatic cancer and had been treated with surgery -- and told he was cured.
Five years later, he had his liver removed and received a transplant, indicating that the cancer had metastasized. The liver is the most common place for pancreatic cancers to spread, because blood flows from one organ to the other.
According to a report by University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill abdominal transplant surgeon Dr. David A. Gerber, liver metastases are the main cause of death for patients with this type of cancer -- so a transplant significantly can prolong survival.
But transplants pose their own risks, particularly with cancer patients.
That's because the immunosuppressant drugs, needed to prevent rejection, make the body less able to fend off infections or new malignancies.
Moreover, if any tiny pockets of cancer cells remain, hidden, the introduction of these immune-suppressing drugs can cause them to flare up, Dr. Anthony Heaney, an endocrinologist at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center, told The Los Angeles Times. So transplants are only performed if doctors believe the cancer is completely gone.
Fortunately, drug treatment is generally not as rigorous for liver patients as it is for patients receiving other organs. Some liver transplant patients even can be safely weaned off medicines, according to longtime transplant surgeon Dr. Oscar Salvatierra of Stanford University's School of Medicine.
Pinaysaamerika
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