WHY NOT JUST LET THE CANCER GROW?

In some cases, this may be the right thing to do. As some people have cancers that grow slowly, exposing them to either surgery or chemotherapy may make them sick without doing much to improve their survival. Older adults, in particular, are more prone to experience the side effects or therapy; if those side effects outweigh the potential benefit or therapy or the potential harm of living with cancer, the proposed therapy may not be of benefit. This is where the notion of "quality of life" becomes important. Alternatively, a person may be ideologically opposed to therapy; for such an individual, letting the cancer grow might be the right thing to do.

In other cases, letting the cancer grow may not be the right thing to do. Unfortunately, many cancer cells do not respect the boundaries of other organs or body structures. A growing cancer might press on another organ and prevent that organ from functioning normally, or it might actually invade an organ and impair that organ's function. Then, a situation may arise in which bleeding or an infection occurs. A lung cancer, for example, might press on the esophagus (the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach) and block the transit of food. A person with such a cancer might describe a sensation of "food getting caught in my throat - I just can't get it down." Alternatively, if the cancer invaded a blood vessel in the lungs, bleeding would occur, and the person might describe episodes of "coughing up blood."w