Paul R, who is my boss, had a thread called 'Refused All Treatment' that chroniciled his mother's travels down this path. I think she lived a year and a quarter. I believe she was 72 when she was diagnosed and in otherwise poor health. She had watched her husband die a terrible death from pancreatic cancer after going through all the treatments and didn't want the same for herself. She refused the surgery also so there was no way she wouldn't die. I tried to find this thread for some else recently and couldn't. If any of you that are better with this search engine can find it, please post the link.

What do the doctors say? Do they think they got it all or do they feel radiation is REALLY necessary? Chemo only enhances the radiation and can be skipped. I didn't have it because they felt the side effects were too great for a 5% extra chance at no reoccurence, but that was 1997 and who knows what chemo they were using then. Radiation however is the thing that leaves the disasterous side effects that one may never recover from. At 72, I don't know. I think I might just take my chances and wait to see if I got a reoccurence. Tough call.

Take care,
Eileen