Martes, 11 de diciembre de 2012
¿Qué tipo de cáncer tiene Chávez? ¿Qué tan grave es su enfermedad? ¿Cuánto le queda de vida?
En The Daily Beast Kent Sepkowitz, un especialista en enfermedades infecciosas, viola un tabú periodístico y médico aventurándose a especular sobre el tema basándose en la información disponible.
Tipo de cáncer:
Of cancers that might arise in the pelvis, standard prostate cancer is by far the most common type, but if he had prostate cancer, he would not have undergone the therapy he has…The only other cancer likely to appear in the pelvis, other than runaway far-advanced colon, bladder, or kidney cancers, which likely would have killed him by now, is something called sarcoma.
Qué tan grave es:
The sarcoma tumors typically are slow growing but relentless, hewing to an odd paradox in cancer and even infectious diseases—the slower growing an infectious organism or a tumor, the more difficult to eradicate. In contrast, the more rapid growing the tumor, often the more likely it will be cured, though there are countless exceptions on either side of the rule.
Cuánto tiempo le queda de vida:
Sarcoma is sometimes cured when caught early and resected. Such cancers often occur in the leg or arm, where they are easier to detect. If Chávez has relapsed pelvic sarcoma, he likely will die of the cancer—though again, without any sort of accurate information, this is just the sort of armchair guessing doctors like me should always avoid. Sticking with this assumption, though, as a guy with recurrent disease only 18 months since his last surgery, he likely has a year or two or three left—years of more surgeries, more chemo, more radiation if he can tolerate it, and progressive and painful debility.