We got back to bad news. The dead stuff was dead tumor cells. Now what do we do?

Thinking back, I wonder if maybe we should have done nothing. The tumor was dead or at least mostly dead, maybe the body's defenses had gotten to the point where they were able to attack and kill the tumor cells, maybe that's what had been going on for the last 20 months. Then again, maybe not. Maybe the tumor cells were growing so fast they outgrew their blood supply and just died because there were too many of them.

I just did that of course, and you can see how fruitless it is. You make your decision based on the best current information, and that's all you can do. The best use of second guessing is for the doctors involved. Not to undermine their confidence, but to learn.

The technology of medicine and knowledge of disease, the body, and the intricate chemical reactions occurring in the body is changing so rapidly that a doctor can't continue to see patients and keep up. Nor is it the responsibility of pharmaceutical companies to educate doctors. Some new and better method of disseminating knowledge from research centers to practitioners must be found. There are now available for subscription, computerized database systems that allow queries based on known symptoms or a given disease, and that return the latest information coming out of our research institutions. After all, a lot of that research work is funded by tax dollars and charitable contributions. Yet vast numbers of us do not benefit from this research until it is put into general use through doctors that have been exposed to these new techniques in school, and who only then bring this knowledge into the general populace.