• Question: Which type of cancer is the hardest to treat?

    Asked by mariam236 to Amar, Ana, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 12 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by icecream19, cupcake94.
    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates I think with the chance of surviving beyond 5 years after diagnosis is something around 8%. This is because a lot of people don’t know they have pancreatic cancer until its too late and treatment is nearly impossible.

      Brain tumours can also be very hard to treat because its difficult to operate on the brain. There is also a tough barrier between the brain and everything else in your body so it is hard for cancer drugs to get into the brain.

    • Photo: Amar Joshi

      Amar Joshi answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      The hardest cancers to treat are ones where detection is hard. The best way to treat cancers is early before it spreads. If you can see a lump and get it checked right away then you can treat it early. But the signs of some cancers are hard. Colon cancer can be the worst because people usually don’t go to the doctors until the cancer has progressed.

    • Photo: Anastasia Wass

      Anastasia Wass answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      I don’t know about what type of cancer is hardest to treat but any cancer that metastasises (spreads around the body) immediately becomes difficult to treat.

      This is because cancer cells can spread and hide anywhere in the body and may stay there for years before forming a new tumour. Chemotherapy is the best treatment we have as this travels round the body in a patients blood to kill the cancer cells.

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Well you cant live without a brain, pancreas, lungs and blood! Cancer after diagnosis usually relies on three main treatments surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

      Brain tumours are pretty hard to treat only a few places in the UK actually do brain surgery s its so specialised. Also depending upon where the tumour is in the brain may make it inoperable.

      The pancreas is a very specialised gland that produces hormones and digestive enzymes. pancreatic tumours are often detected late. but as the gland is so specialised its makes it difficult to treat.

      Lung cancer is generally fairly treatable (like all cancers i MUST add as long as they are caught early) but if you have cancer in your right lung they can remove part of the lung and you can survive with the rest and yourleft. However there is a lung cancer called mesothelioma, this is often detected when its to late and quite often found at post morten examination. its a tumour of the lining of the lungs.

      Leukemias or blood cancers are treatable but the treatment is harsh wiping out bone marrow. This leads to leukaemia patients being very immuno suppressed and at risk of death from a common cold.

      cancers are harder to treat if they have spread round the body, usually at this point treatment is to keep the cancer at bay and extend patients life as much as possible.

    • Photo: Leah Fitzsimmons

      Leah Fitzsimmons answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      The rest of the scientists have given really good answers – the only thing I would add is that cancer cells can change and mutate and sometimes even if treatment starts really well the tumour can become resistant to the drugs being used. There are lots of scientists trying to work out how to stop this, and as Andrea said patients will almost always receive more than one type of treatment, this is to make sure doctors can eliminate as many cancer cells as possible.

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