A recent post by Christine B (whom I nominate as Wonder Woman of OCF) made me wonder just how the 5 year clock works for those of us [quote]who have been dealt the hard hand of dealing with a recurrence of the disease[/quote] [Brian's wonderful description of this forum]
The conventional wisdom is that if you survive 5 years, you are out of the woods. But when does that 5 years start: at DX or when TX is completed. Even more importantly on a personal level, does the 5 year clock get "reset" when the Cancer comes back. I have gotten different answers from different doctors.
What have your doctors told you? Even better, does someone have the "definitive" answer from NCI or NIH or Brian Hill.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Like Christine, I'm now over three years from my initial cancer. It's only been 18 months though since my last TX of a second round of radiation & chemo were done.
I know there are no guarantees but ...
Charm

Charm, as always thanks for your appreciation. You do a great job around here keeping us informed of important articles. You are also a wiz in directing people to websites that have important info. So...right back at ya, buddy!!!!

Breifly here is what my doc said yesterday. My chemo oncologist told me she counts from the original date. I questioned her and she said the doctors there all count it the same. My opinion conflicts with this as I think it should be restarted to count from the recurrance's end of treatment date.

I know for life insurance they are going to count it from the last date of being cancer free.

For some reason, I kinda remember this being discussed before. Im very interested in hearing what Brian's take on this is.