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Pleural Effusion


JCM

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From what I’ve read, the evidence for malignant pleural effusion has a very poor prognosis associated with it, 3-12 months. Has anyone here had a different experience I might find encouraging? Unless I’m mistaken, it does appear to be a death sentence.

JCM

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Hi Jane. 

Early on I saw similar statistics and then the Forum family here warned others off of Google with very good reasons.  Given the treatment advances those data points aren’t valid. I’m living proof- plural effusion in September 2018.  It resolved and I’m doing really well today. Carry on. 
Michelle

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JCM,

I’m not sure I agree with your prognosis. I had a pleural effusion with only one lung and have survived 16 years. Treatment was not a walk in the park. Removing fluid was painful and not pleasant to endure but it made breathing easier. Pneumonia for me was (is) a far more dangerous threat. 

Prognosis statistics are very rough order of magnitude guesstimates. Consider, every lung cancer patient has a different baseline health profile yet a prognosis statistic does not consider this important variance. Another unconsidered factors is age. So variance abounds and evidence is in the differential (span) between 3 and 12 months.  

I’m not a statician but have a lot of academic training and experience in the discipline. When I discussed the topic with my oncologist, he acknowledged the lack of precision but said, understandably, that even inaccurate statistical projections had more utility than no projection at all.  

Have you read Stephen Jay Gould’s “The Medium is not the Message”?

Stay the course.

Tom

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Hey JCM,  

I recommend  two things :

1. Don't read that stuff on Google! Or if you do,  keep in mind that it's probably outdated due in part to many recent changes in lung cancer treamtent.

2> Read the Stephen Jay Gould article Tom mentions.  Here's a video  of Gould reading it.

 

 

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