For unfortunate personal reasons I have been reading studies on rectal cancer. Rectal cancer is terminal if untreated and curable if treated, but still 20-30% o

For unfortunate personal reasons I have been reading studies on rectal cancer. Rectal cancer is terminal if untreated and curable if treated, but still 20-30% of patients don't even complete radiation and chemo treatment. Standard of care is localized radiation, poison in pill and IV form, and hope the cancer dies before the patient. At 40, this is rough. At 80, I might decide to call it game over. Only in the last decade, they have downplayed surgery with ~40% dodging it altogether when chemo-radiation provides total response. Surgery typically means at least a temporary colostomy and is high risk for older patients so the incentive was there to avoid it. Modern medicine is very pro-treatment and it takes a lot of 5 year studies to get them to dial things back.