Dr. Jonathan Storey at Science Based Medicine:
Her recent breast surgery went perfectly. The tumor is out, margins are clear, and none of her scans show any cancer. So, she is understandably distraught when I begin to discuss the option of chemotherapy. “But I thought they got it all,” she says.
As a medical oncologist, I have had some version of this conversation hundreds of times, but it never gets easier. We call it adjuvant therapy — the medical practice of giving a person four to six months of chemotherapy after their cancer surgery, just in case. The underlying logic of adjuvant therapy rests on a single uncomfortable fact.
The practice of oncology is hard. I hope you never have to make a decision regarding adjuvant chemotherapy.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: There is a way of eating linked to lower risk of getting cancer. See below.
