NOS News•
People with metastatic cancer live slightly longer than about fifteen years ago. Research by the Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Center (IKNL) shows that 21 percent of patients with metastatic cancer are still alive three years after diagnosis. That was previously 17 percent.
This improvement does not apply to everyone, because half of patients with metastatic cancer still die within seven months after the initial diagnosis. About fifteen years ago that was five months.
In the study, the IKNL looked at two periods, 2004-2008 and 2019-2023, and focused on people who appear to have metastatic cancer at the time the disease was diagnosed. In one in five of all cancer patients, the cancer has already spread at the time of diagnosis. That’s about 22,000 people per year.
Survivability
According to the IKNL, the chances of survival are highly dependent on the type of cancer. Survival is longest for prostate cancer and breast cancer. The most progress has been made in patients with melanoma, kidney cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer in recent years, because new therapies work there.
According to Natasja Raijmakers, principal researcher in palliative care at IKNL, a lot has changed in treatments in recent years: “Thanks to immunotherapy and targeted therapy, some of the patients sometimes live years longer. But the success does not apply to everyone: the median life expectancy for metastatic cancer is unfortunately still limited, at seven months.”
The IKNL also looked at the treatments that patients with metastatic cancer receive and concluded that a quarter of all patients with cancer received care that was inappropriate in the last months before death. According to IKNL, this is because care that was initially appropriate later has more disadvantages than advantages.
Palliative care
With lung cancer, most people received care that was no longer appropriate in the last month: 29 percent. For stomach cancer and breast cancer this was 25 percent. This concerns care in the last month of life that is no longer of much use, such as hospital admissions and visits to the emergency room.
The authors of the report argue for more attention to palliative care, which is care for people who are terminally ill and treatment that is mainly aimed at quality of life.
The Federation of Cancer Patient Organizations says that most people do not opt for endless treatment. The federation therefore believes it is important that doctors talk to patients about what does and does not contribute to the patient’s life.
