I just had a conversation that shattered what I thought about metastatic cancer (which I still hope to avoid forever).
Dr. Dawn Lemanne dropped this bomb: "Large, randomized controlled trials have failed in oncology completely over the past 40-50 years. Not one cure."
Then she told me about giving testosterone to a prostate cancer patient whose tumor had become resistant to testosterone-blocking therapy. Sounds insane, right?
It worked. The hormone rescued sensitive cancer cells and made the tumor treatable again.
Dr. Lemanne emphasized that we're still hammering tumors with maximum treatment continuously—creating exactly the resistance we're trying to prevent. Farmers figured this out with pesticides decades ago. Medicine missed the memo.
Dr. Lemanne works with the Moffit center to use mathematical models to prevent resistance instead of just managing it until it kills you. Her patients track tumor dynamics in real-time and live for decades with metastatic disease.
"We can have two people with identical mutations who respond differently to the same treatment because there are so many other variables."
Your tumor isn't average. Your treatment shouldn't be either.
This conversation will change how you think about "incurable."
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