Platinum Member (300+ posts) Joined: Apr 2013 Posts: 319 Likes: 1 | Donna, this "chance of survival" business is a statistical construct. All it means is that in a group of some number of members who share a common condition, at the end of 5 years (or some other period), some percentage of that number will still be surviving (unlike the rest of that group.)
Unfortunately, it tells you exactly nothing about your chances as an individual in that group.
In every group of some size, individuals who meet all the group's requirements will fall outside the predicted outcomes (on both the high and low ends) but there's no data to help predict who those individuals will be.
It's frustrating for folks in our situation, but like everything else in life, it is what it is.
My intro: http://oralcancersupport.org/forums/ubbt...3644#Post16364409/09 - Dx OC Stg IV 10/09 - Chemo/3 Cisplatin, 40 rad 11/09 - PET CLEAN 07/11 - Dx Stage IV C. (Liver) 06/12 - PET CLEAN 09/12 - PET Dist Met (Liver) 04/13 - PET CLEAN 06/13 - PET Dist Met (Liver + 1 lymph node) 10/13 - PET - Xeloda ineffective 11/13 - Liver packed w/ SIRI-Spheres 02/14 - PET - Siri-Spheres effective, 4cm tumor in lymph-node 03/15 - Begin 15 Rads 03/24 - Final Rad! Woot! 7/27/14 Bart passed away. RIP!
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