Deaths From Cancer

[fruitsalad]

After the deaths of David Bowie and now Alan Rickman both of cancer, who both it seems were up and about a few weeks before their deaths, what happens that suddenly kills people with the disease, I realise they die from cancer but what is the final thing that kills them? Sorry for sounding so morbid.

[Peter Pedant]

as a medical student insisted - cardiac arrest or in English the heart stops

Usually chest infection and they keel over in a few hours
the Victorians called it 'The Old man's Friend'

[Mamyalynne]

Depending on Cancer type, death will occur when the cancerous cells kill or replace enough of the normal cells that are keeping an organ going and as that spreads life becomes untenable.

[Bathsheba]

Haven't read this myself, but just did a quick Google for you, Fruity ;)

x x x

[Mamyalynne]

I must add my answer was how it was explained to me when I needed to know.

Not based on knowledge as others will have.

[ummmm]

Organ failure I would assume.

My dad was in the pub on the Sunday (looking awful) and was dead by the Thursday.

[Sqad]

Depends on many factors including site and type of tumour.

Broadly speaking, the commonest cause is infection, in the lungs (pneumonia)and in the stomach peritonitis.

Secondly organ failure...the heart gives up, the kidneys give up...ect ect.

Thirdly....profuse bleeding...sen in intestines and bladder.

Lastly spread of tumour throughout the body..brain, liver, lungs called what is known as carcinomatosis.

That is a brief description.

[237SJ]

I think it depends on the cancer. It`s not the cancer that kills you, it`s what it does to your body. Some people have a slow, bedridden demise (such as my neighbour) and other`s keep going and then just keel over within a few days. I was only talking about this the other day when David Bowie died. The average life expectancy when breast cancer spreads into the bones (for example) is 24 to 36 months (other types of cancer that have bone spread have different expectancies) and people can keep going with blood transfusions etc but there comes a point when there is nothing that can be done. I asked a doctor about this after my Mum died and she said that cancer changes the metabolism (cachexia) and this is what can finish some people off.

[Prudie]

I'd have thought there was a variety of answers although some kind of organ failure must be the final reason. Some will be up and about until a few days before but don't forget the poor souls laid up on morphine for weeks. Wicked disease.

[Bathsheba]

Duh me...forgot to post the link...

http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=989

[fruitsalad]

Thank you

[237SJ]

"Usually chest infection and they keel over in a few hours" I don`t know anyone who has died of a cancer related chest infection.

[EDDIE51]

Cancer treatment can damage the immune system to the point where there is no resistance to an infection and it proves fatal.
My Father in Law dies from lung cancer just before Christmas. In the end his lungs gave up because there was so much fluid on them he could not breath any more.

[horselady]

Is anyone else, like me, feeling depressed and a bit scared by so many cancer deaths happening all at once? I realise we only hear about the famous names and when you consider that thousands of "ordinary" people have the disease too it feels as if we are overwhelmed by it. Do you think there will ever be a real cure? I lost my father and brother to this horrible illness.

[Sqad]

\\\\Is anyone else, like me, feeling depressed and a bit scared by so many cancer deaths happening all at once?\\

I am sure there are.........but not me.

\\\\Do you think there will ever be a real cure?\\\

Yes, but unlikely to be one cure for ALL cancers.

Just look at the lifestyle of many of these "celebrities" who die of cancer and that might give you a clue on why this appears to be so.
Smoking, drugs, alcohol and in a few cases obesity.

[Old_Geezer]

29% of UK deaths are presently due to cancer so one is likely to hear of a fair number of them. But we all go from something. I'm sure progress on curing/preventing this disease is making progress albeit slowly. What with genetic science and other modern advancements I feel convinced it will be solved someday, probably in the not too distant future given the ever accelerating rate of "breakthroughs". Then we can worry about a different disease.

[Cloverjo]

If we didn't die from cancer, it would be from something else. I'd rather die from cancer in my sixties than sit in a home suffering and lingering with dementia for years.
By the way, I'm as upset as anyone about the deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman, and my mum had a horrible time with it, so I'd rather it didn't exist.

[horselady]

Good point Sqad about the celebrity lifestyle. I'm not normally someone who worries about illness, it just seems such a cruel disease when you think of the little kids that get it too. When I win millions on the lottery I shall donate a huge amount to research.

[EDDIE51]

'Cancer' is not just one disease like Malaria for example, it is dozens of different diseases with some similarities . Probably 80% of Cancers are caused by lifestyle or genetic disposition and so are preventable.

[beso]

Many more people die of cancer now because we have effective treatments for formerly big killers like heart disease.