Cancer is no longer a death sentence. Many people do survive and many maintain a healthy quality of life. Read what long-term cancer survivors have to say.



Alice S, 57, is a breast cancer survivor and retired physical education and health teacher for more than 30 years.

"The chance of having a recurrence is something that is in the back of every cancer survivor's mind. So continuing with the race is a great idea because it's sometimes helpful to be distracted. Your mental state is helpful in the healing process. If you're soldiering on, you believe you are going to survive."

John P, 72, husband of breast cancer survivor

"You can't stop living. Hopefully she'll get better. We did OK. You gotta fight it right with her. You don't stop doing what you're doing."

Lorraine P, 65, two-time breast cancer survivor. Her most recent recurrence was in December, detected by a digital mammography machine.

"When I was diagnosed, I worked every day. Sometimes that helps you get better and get your mind on something else," she said.

Estrea J, 54, nine-year lung cancer survivor.

"My husband and I were trying to have a baby before I was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1998 at the age of 45. We stopped and said wait a second. What if I should die? I'm going to leave my child motherless, my husband a widower. So for a year, we didn't do anything. And I learned a lot more. I learned the concept of going on with your life. Even though my oncologist said, 'You're not out of the woods.'

"Unless someone has told you unequivocally, and the only person who can do that is God, that you are going to die, that's the only time someone stops and lives their lives differently. So for a spouse to not go on with their lives the way they planned it doesn't make any sense. You really never know and cancer patients have to feel that whatever they're telling you, statistics don't matter."

Statistics don't matter because they represent a segment of the population. But they don't represent you. You're different. The statistics don't take into account your fighting spirit, your will to survive. You cannot let a doctor's Russian roulette diagnosis condemn you to death. Your doctor doesn't know you. Not well enough. It is possible today to survive cancer for a long time.

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