Left clueless.

[Vic_Rattlehead]

Today, I found out of my friends died, totally shocking. However, my friend said he died of Cancer in the neck,spine and kidneys. But what gets me is that he was out drinking a month ago(or something). Secondly I wasnt even aware that he even had cancer, was only informed about his illness after his death.

Either, he always kept his illness to himself, (which would be unlikely as cancer in those areas would probably have you in a hospital bed 24/7) or, it spread that fast and become fatal.

Can Cancer really be this fast and strike at such a fast speed?? I honestly don't know what to think.

[darkmateria]

Today, I found out of my friends died, totally shocking. However, my friend said he died of Cancer in the neck,spine and kidneys. But what gets me is that he was out drinking a month ago(or something). Secondly I wasnt even aware that he even had cancer, was only informed about his illness after his death.

Either, he always kept his illness to himself, (which would be unlikely as cancer in those areas would probably have you in a hospital bed 24/7) or, it spread that fast and become fatal.

Can Cancer really be this fast and strike at such a fast speed?? I honestly don't know what to think.

Let me start off that I'm really sorry to hear about your friend. It sounds like he intended to live his life as well as he could, knowing that he had a life threatening illness. I hope this is something you keep in mind and comfot you to some degree, when ever you feel sad at loosing him.

My girlfriend has done quite a bit of work with research in cancer treatment during the last few years, and I asked her about this. Although she is a cell biologist and not a medical doctor, she had this to say about it;

It really all depends on the person, and the nature of the cancer. Sometimes the growth can start in a rather unimportant area, and then spreading to the surrounding tissues which may contain important systems (lymphatic, nervous etc)

The spread can be rather slow, with the effects being fairly minor. Once it spreads to a major system, the impact on the persons health can be quite dramatic.

It could be that your friend developed the growth in his neck, and then it spread to his spine and kidneys. The initial stages would have been painful, but not dehabilitating. But once it hit a major system such as the spine, the cancer would have had a major impact, even if the rate of growth had remained constant.

A lot of people are generaly quite fit (unless they go through treatment such as chemo) during various stages of the cancer, before thier condition seriously worsens just before death.

Once again...I'm sorry to hear of you loss (and my girlfriend passes on her condolences too)

James

[Praetorian]

I had a friend who went to sleep and was totally fine, and the next day his whole back was painful and covered with bumps. The deadly cancer had spread basically overnight. He died a few months later.

It was horrible.

My condoleances.

[Annoying MSN Person]

It all depends on the person, the type of cancer, and whether it is easily noticed.
In August my dad felt worn out, so he went with mother on a nice holiday in Fiji.
In September he passed away. He'd had it for years, they'd never picked up on it. For all the fucking exams for insurance and work, they never saw something that could have saved him. They didn't even know where the primary site of it was. I'm sorry you've lost your friend. But cancer really is a nasty bitch that will sneak up on you out of no where.

[Angelyne]

Sorry for the loss.

A guy at my high school was diagnosed with leukemia, and he essentially stopped showing up for classes. About a month later, there was an announcement over the PA that he had died.

[Pierrot le Fou]

There is also the possibility that he knew about it, and knew that it was likely incurable, so he just decided not to bother with chemo or anything and to enjoy the little time he had left as best he could. Cancer doesn't necessarily make you end up in a hospital bed, it's usually the treatments that do the damage to the body in the hopes to kill the cancerous cells before they kill you.

[Bagpuss]

Firstly, my condolences - it must have been quite a shock. I had cancer scare (fortunately just a scare) about a year ago and it was months before I had the all clear. At the time I didn't really feel like sharing the news with people, I just felt I needed to get to grips with the news myself first. So maybe your friend felt the same.

The second part of the question is that yes, your friend's health could have deteriorated that fast. Literally every single cancer is different. In general though they are just your own body's cells multiplying too fast so some people can have mild forms of cancer for years (infact most men over 70 have prostate cancer but they usually keel over from something else before they even realise) and other people can have very agressive forms that stop the surrounding organs from functioning properly. I'm not a medical doctor (biochemistry PhD) but at a guess, if it had affected his spine it could have quite quickly affected brain signals to his lungs or heart.

Also, Pierrot le Fou is right, it is usually the treatments that make you ill. They are supposed to kill the cancer cells but because the cancer cells are just your cells gone wrong they also affect some perfectly healthy cells.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Again I am so sorry.

[Hitokage]

I know your pain, sadly. Just last month, I found out one of my good friends was killed in a car accident with his younger brother. We found out through a newspaper article online, feared the worst, and it was true. Ends up that one of his friends (who lived near him, we lived 2 hours apart) was looking for a way to contact ME to tell me about the funeral when I managed to find him through myspace.

Life goes on, but that doesn't mean the speed bumps can really hurt.