Failures ...

[deleted4401]

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Now that I'm a little over a half year in, and patients that I initially treated for NSCLC or HNC or pancreatic CA are starting to creep back in to the clinic for local and distant failures.

It's strange. In medicine last year, people came back usually b/c of their own mistakes: too much salt leading to CHF exac, too much sugar leading to whatever diabetic complication, liver failure exacs, and it wasn't too hard to get cynical.

But these folks, I feel like I didn't do my job. It kind of sucks ...

-S

 

[kimplera]

Simul,
As one of my attendings likes to say: "I just remind myself that it's the disease and not the doc."

In the overwhelming majority of cases I'd say that we did everything by the book (whether the book was right or not is debatable) and sometimes cancer is just a tricky little devil.
rk

 

[radonc]

unfortunately, its just the nature of the tumor...

 

[stephew]

HNC often can be successfully controled but with panc or nsc lung, well, that is the disease. that sometimes guides why people want to specialize. Some like GU and breast since you can "cure" so many. Some pick the other fields where there are poor survival rates because they want to contribute. a good balance is healthy for you in the long term so you don't burn out.

Now that I'm a little over a half year in, and patients that I initially treated for NSCLC or HNC or pancreatic CA are starting to creep back in to the clinic for local and distant failures.

It's strange. In medicine last year, people came back usually b/c of their own mistakes: too much salt leading to CHF exac, too much sugar leading to whatever diabetic complication, liver failure exacs, and it wasn't too hard to get cynical.

But these folks, I feel like I didn't do my job. It kind of sucks ...

-S