How good are conventional cancer treatments?
We need to address this question before looking at the effectiveness of SPDT/SDT. Unfortunately, there are big problems measuring the effectiveness of cancer treatments. People with early stage cancer typically have no evidence of cancer, which means that it is impossible to know if any treatment has benefited. What is usually done is to wait until the cancer has grown sufficiently to be detectable, and then treat the patient. By then, the cancer is much harder to remove. This strategy is forced on to doctors because mainstream therapies are usually too dangerous to use with patients who “might” have cancer. With late stage cancer, the evidence is much clearer, but then the problem is much harder to solve. This is typically what we know during the first 6 months or so after initial diagnosis: 1. Surgery to remove primary tumours.
We need to address this question before looking at the effectiveness of SPDT/SDT. Unfortunately, there are big problems measuring the effectiveness of cancer treatments. People with early stage cancer typically have no evidence of cancer, which means that it is impossible to know if any treatment has benefited. What is usually done is to wait until the cancer has grown sufficiently to be detectable, and then treat the patient. By then, the cancer is much harder to remove. This strategy is forced on to doctors because mainstream therapies are usually too dangerous to use with patients who “might” have cancer. With late stage cancer, the evidence is much clearer, but then the problem is much harder to solve. This is typically what we know during the first 6 months or so after initial diagnosis: 1. Surgery to remove primary tumours. It is often possible to prove that the surgery has been completely effective in removing the tumour, but it is not known if any undetectable secondary tumours
