I know it doesn’t help but the generalising of treatment (‘it helps in most cases’) is a phase in any developing understanding of a complex disease. It applies to almost anyone with cancer, and doubtless to rare diseases. As has been said many times, breast cancer treatment has improved a lot in the last 30 years. No, it’s not perfect and not yet fine tuned to individuals. My choice is to support research and make my decisions on the best advice I can find and trust. I am lucky to have medical advisers prepared to say “ we don’t know yet”. “Yet” probably will come, too late for me in all likelihood (30 more years may be past my use by date!) but it will come and benefit countless others. In the meantime, yes let’s support advocacy groups, let’s speak out about the impact of treatment but we need to be our own advocates too.
