Lance Armstrong beating cancer

[Surfer]

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I had a discussion with a patient regarding her cancer and she referred to "if lance armstrong can beat it, so can I."

What type of tumor did lance have, and what is the cure rate for this condition? I know it was testicular that had mets to the lungs/brain, but what kind of tumor? references would help.

thanks! i'm concerned that he is propogating the idea that if you strong enough will power, you can beat cancer. in his autobiography he says his doctor told him he had "less than a 1% chance of survival."

thanks in advance, and any thoughts on this issue?

 

[zippa]

This article might help.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/science/01canc.html
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/296/4/445

The cyclist Lance Armstrong's successful treatment for advanced metastatic testicular cancer was not a miracle, though some accounts have portrayed it as one.

In a commentary published in the July 26 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, three researchers at Johns Hopkins offer a hypothesis for what they call the "Lance Armstrong effect."

 

[dfk]

i'll admit, i was a bandwagon watcher of the tour de france back when lance was gunning for number 6 and 7. i am looking forward to this years tour. it would be absolutely amazing should he win again!

 

[aphistis]

Off topic, but Lance's neurosurgeon operates at my hospital two or three days a week. Great guy. You can always spot him coming down the hall because he's the only doctor who wears a big poofy IU Starter coat.

 

[Hockeyguy]

Lance Armstrong rules and I am a big fan but... Have you ever wondered if steroids had anything to do with it? Wouldn't a cancer of testicular origion get worse if it was being bombarded with testerone? I mean isn't one of the treatments of male GU cancers to induce chemical sterilization? Would it be true that someone could making their testicular cancer a lot worse with exogenous hormones and when the stopped that it might weaken them greatly. An analogy would be tamoxifen and breast cancer.

I know Lance has denied using roids but I grew up between Golden and Boulder - one of the hotbeds for road cycling. I have a number of friends in the sport. They all use/used roids at somepoint - its just part of the sport.

 

[geogil]

Maybe, but based solely on appearance, he doesn't look like he was juicing back in 96 when he was diagnosed. I think of Barry Bonds before and after, and the guy looks puffy, whereas lance never looked puffy like that. Not too scientific, just my gestalt impression. What kind of role to anabolic steroids play in endurance sports? my impression was that they were more helpful in sports requiring quick bursts of energy or a massive physique in a bannana hammock. Haven't covered endocrine yet, so maybe I'll know the answer in 6 weeks.

Being a road cyclist myself though, I really hope that he is clean. I think he's just a genetic outlier with a tremendous VO2 max. I mean the guy turned pro at 18 or something ridiculous, and that's innate talent, not pharmaceutical assistance.

 

[radslooking]

my shoot from the hip remembrance is that his type of cancer had a 50% survival rate. Impressive, but certainly not impossible.

 

[geogil]

my shoot from the hip remembrance is that his type of cancer had a 50% survival rate. Impressive, but certainly not impossible.

but mets to the lung and brain? methinks the odds are less than 50/50.

 

[DO4lifer]

Facts about Lance's Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

• Lance was diagnosed with an aggressive form of testicular cancer, containing 60% choriocarcinoma, 40% embryonal and less than 1% teratoma.
• Lance's treatment lasted from October to December 1996.
• Lance underwent two surgeries, one to remove his cancerous testicle and another to remove two cancerous lesions on his brain.
• Lance received one round of BEP (Bleomycin, Etoposide and Platinol) chemotherapy, followed by three rounds of VIP chemotherapy (Ifosfamide, Etoposide and Platinol.)
• Lance's cancer in the lungs and brain was a result of spreading from the original testicular cancer. As a result, his treatment protocols were to combat that specific strain of cancer. Different cancers originating from different sources in the body will likely require other treatments than the one described above for Lance.
• Lance was treated at Indiana University Medical Center by Drs. Larry Einhorn and Craig Nichols. (Dr. Einhorn can be reached at the Indiana University Medical Center at 317/274-8157; Dr. Nichols at Providence Cancer Center at 503/215-5696.

Linky

 

[DO4lifer]

furthermore it said it has a 90% survival rate if detected early, but Lance "ignored the warning signs"...

 

[gudog]

Lance Armstrong rules and I am a big fan but... Have you ever wondered if steroids had anything to do with it? Wouldn't a cancer of testicular origion get worse if it was being bombarded with testerone? I mean isn't one of the treatments of male GU cancers to induce chemical sterilization? Would it be true that someone could making their testicular cancer a lot worse with exogenous hormones and when the stopped that it might weaken them greatly. An analogy would be tamoxifen and breast cancer.

I know Lance has denied using roids but I grew up between Golden and Boulder - one of the hotbeds for road cycling. I have a number of friends in the sport. They all use/used roids at somepoint - its just part of the sport.

Testis cancer is not related to testosterone, you are probably misremembering the relationship between prostate cancer and testosterone.

 

[gudog]

Facts about Lance's Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

• Lance was diagnosed with an aggressive form of testicular cancer, containing 60% choriocarcinoma, 40% embryonal and less than 1% teratoma.
• Lance's treatment lasted from October to December 1996.
• Lance underwent two surgeries, one to remove his cancerous testicle and another to remove two cancerous lesions on his brain.
• Lance received one round of BEP (Bleomycin, Etoposide and Platinol) chemotherapy, followed by three rounds of VIP chemotherapy (Ifosfamide, Etoposide and Platinol.)
• Lance's cancer in the lungs and brain was a result of spreading from the original testicular cancer. As a result, his treatment protocols were to combat that specific strain of cancer. Different cancers originating from different sources in the body will likely require other treatments than the one described above for Lance.
• Lance was treated at Indiana University Medical Center by Drs. Larry Einhorn and Craig Nichols. (Dr. Einhorn can be reached at the Indiana University Medical Center at 317/274-8157; Dr. Nichols at Providence Cancer Center at 503/215-5696.

Linky

Lance made an informed decision to forgo the standard chemo routine for testis cancer and stop the bleomycin after just one cycle for fear of permanent lung injury.

This decision probably led to his pulmonary metastasis, but also preserved enough lung function for him to win multiple Tours de France.

 

[dhb]

Little did he achieve before his cancer then all of a sudden he becomes the MAN (although with only one ball) give me a break. As said above in cycling everyone is juiced.

 

[geogil]

He alleges in his book "It's not about the bike" that he lost weight during his treatment that had previously hindered him as a grand tour cyclist. Prior to chemo he was pretty big (for a cyclist) in the torso/arms region because of his career as a swimmer and triathlete. S/P chemo, he was much smaller, and could more or less rebuild in a way that was more conducive to climbing. You can see this if you look at pics of him in the 90s verus when he rode for postal.

Before:


After:

 

[radslooking]

but mets to the lung and brain? methinks the odds are less than 50/50.

i just looked it up for edification. Looks to be about 40-50%.

 

[Bertelman]

Little did he achieve before his cancer

Are you back, Yoda?