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Cancer FAQs


I wanted to use this site to answer some of the common questions I get on cancer treatment and survivorship. Feel free to submit more
questions on the blog or via jason@teamjason.org and I will post answers. There are no stupid questions! Cancer is hard to understand.
I have a wealth of knowledge about this disease from a patient's perspective and want to share with anyone who's interested!  -Jason

Disclaimer! I am not a doctor or nurse. The answers here are based on my unique experience with cancer and only reflect my personal opinion.
Every cancer experience varies tremendously.

What is cancer?
Cancer is a group of diseases in which cells are aggressive (grow and divide without respect to normal limits), invasive (invade and destroy adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastatic (spread to other locations in the body). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited in their growth and don't invade or metastasize (although some benign tumor types are capable of becoming malignant). Cancer may affect people at all ages, even fetuses, but risk for the more common varieties tends to increase with age. Cancer causes about 13% of all deaths. According to the American Cancer Society, 7.6 million people died from cancer in the world during 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer
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How did you get cancer?
My understanding is that when cancer occurs in young adults, it is highly unlikely the result of any environmental factors like the sun,
smoking, or drug abuse. There simply has not been enough time, except if you grew up on like a biowaste dump, then I guess you are screwed.
Cancer in young otherwise healthy adults is a fluke. A stroke of bad luck. A set-back and, an amazing opportunity.
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What kind of cancer do you have?
I have malignant brain cancer. My first occurrence was in my brain, my second occurrence was in my spinal vertebrae and my bone marrow, and
this most recent recurrence was in my spinal vertebrae again. Medulloblastoma is a highly malignant primary brain tumor that originates in the cerebellum or posterior fossa. Medulloblastoma is one of the most common primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET) originating in the brain. All PNET tumors of the brain are invasive and rapidly growing tumors that, unlike most brain tumors, spread through the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and frequently metastasize to different locations in the brain and spine. Brain tumors are the second most common malignancy among children less than 20 years of
age. Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor, comprising 14.5% of newly diagnosed cases. In adults, medulloblastoma is rare, comprising less than 2% of Central Nervous Systemmalignancies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medulloblastoma
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What happened to your hair?
Ah, hair! I used to have awesome hair. My hair first fell out when I had craniospinal radiation in the summer of 2004. When I had chemotherapy later that fall, my hair actually came back, oddly enough. When my hair came back, it was exactly the same as it had been before treatment. I thought I was in good shape. Then I had my first recurrence and I lost all of my hair again, especially when I had high dose chemotherapy during my stem cell transplant in May of 2006. Doctors have told me that my hair never came back fully as a result of the high doses of radiation that I received to my head and the
cumulative chemotherapy. It is likely that the hair follicles on my head are permanently dead, but it could come back years from now. There is just no way to know. It bothered me for a while, but I am over it now. There are so many bald guys out there and I have a good excuse!
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What is chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy, or "chemical treatment," has been around since the days of the ancient Greeks.  However, chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer began in the 1940s with the use of nitrogen mustard. Since then, in the attempt to discover what is effective in chemotherapy, many new drugs have been developed and tried. Sometimes referred to simply as "chemo", chemotherapy is used most often to describe drugs that kill cancer cells directly. These are sometimes referred to as "anti-cancer" drugs or "antineoplastics." Today's therapy uses more than 100 drugs to treat cancer.  There are even more chemo drugs still under development and investigation. http://www.chemocare.com/whatis/what_is_chemotherapy.asp Chemotherapy is a general term used to describe dozens of different medications that all work to kill cancer cells. The reason chemotherapy is a difficult process to go through is because it kills all cells, not just cancer cells. This causes many side effects such as compromised blood counts which can lead to a compromised immune system, infection, fatigue and bleeding.
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What is radiation therapy?
Radiation therapy (or radiotherapy) is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells (not to be confused with radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis). Radiotherapy may be used for curative or adjuvant cancer treatment. It is used as palliative treatment (where cure is not possible and the aim is for local disease control or symptomatic relief) or as therapeutic treatment (where the therapy has survival benefit and it can be curative). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_therapy I received craniospinal radiation to my head and whole torso in 30 daily treatments over six weeks during the summer of 2004. More recently, I received a special kind of targeted radiation therapy called cyber knife radiosurgery in five treatments over five days to one spot on my spine.
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What is remission?
Remission is every cancer survivor's favorite word. It is hard to get most oncologists to say, but with coaxing and lots of treatment it is possible. I have heard it a couple times. Remission is the state of absence of disease activity in patients with known chronic illness. It is commonly used to refer to absence of active cancer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remission Remission can be reached multiple times. Each type of cancer has different markers and milestones that indicate true remission and long term survival.
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Is there a cure for cancer? Are you going to be cured?
Some types of cancer have cures. Most do not. There is no "cure" for the kind of cancer I have, but I have personally met many people who are long term cancer survivors. Rapid advances in cancer research and treatment are very promising. All we can do is keep on fighting until there is a cure. Cancer is a chronic illness, something you live with and treat. I am living with cancer, moving forward with my life in every way I possibly can.
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Why is cancer so expensive?
Cancer is expensive because our healthcare system is broken and corrupt. It costs drug companies a lot of money to do the research necessary to find medications and therapies that help cure cancer and they pass that cost onto consumers. The same goes for hospitals and medical professionals. It is expensive to run a hospital and expensive to go to medical school to become a doctor. Hospitals and doctors over-bill patients to make up for these expenses and insured patients bare the brunt of the cost. Health shouldn't be a business; it's a right of all humans and responsibility of our society. I could go on and on, but you should just see Sicko instead!
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