So – when I saw Prof this week, he had some interesting numbers to share with me.<\/p>\n
When I was diagnosed 11 years ago, the average survival time for Myeloma patients was 2-3 years. Obviously, bloody dreadful and all the more reason that I am amazed and very very happy to still be here 11 years later.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, he has always talked about how it was sort of 'the right time' to get Myeloma, if there could be such a thing, as for many decades there had been very little in the way of new drugs, but over the last decade a considerable (in cancer terms) number of new drugs have been created, including now the immunotherapy drugs to work alongside traditional chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
While this will be little solace to the many, many myeloma chums and acquaintances who have passed away in this era, the new numbers were a little ray of sunshine when I saw him this week.<\/p>\n
Apparently now the stats for newly diagnosed people, including those in their 70s and 80s, people presenting with major issues such as kidney failure caused by the disease and being unaware of it till then, plus people with 'extra myeloma problems' such as amyloid etc etc – now the average survival time is 10 years.<\/p>\n
That is a MASSIVE improvement, although many people still of course die each year from this crappy incurable monster.<\/p>\n
But here's to progress and the extra 'pots' of newer drugs, in the hope they will continue to do their thing for some good years to come x <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So – when I saw Prof this week, he had some interesting numbers to share with me. When I was diagnosed 11 years ago, the average survival time for Myeloma patients was 2-3 years. Obviously, bloody dreadful and all the more reason that I am amazed and very very happy to still be here 11 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n