Stage 4 oral cancer

[Myra]

Hii friends 

My close friend is suffering from stage 4 oral cancer. He had taken chemotherapy, radiotherapy & surgery as well. From last 2 yrs his cancer cell comes back the 4th time. Doctors are saying it can't be cure now. We are trying to find if someone can cure it. Is there anyone who had survived from stage 4?  Any doctor, hospital who can cure? Please let me know. He is not having too much time with him. If anyone knows any solution please reply. We will be very thankful to you.

[Katekat]

Thanks for joining and welcome to the Online Community @Myra, we hope you'll receive a lot of great advice and support from your fellow community members.

The best person to speak to would be your friend's oncologist, go armed with a list of questions if your time with them is limited. Could you or a family member go with your friend and ask the questions for them? Be an advocate.

I can see you're not from Australia but the following resources may be useful to you:

• Living with advanced cancer - pdf book
• Understanding head and neck cancer - pdf book
• Complementary therapies - pdf book
• Mouth health - pdf book
• Making treatment decisions - podcast
• How to help someone with cancer - podcast
• Coping with a cancer diagnosis - podcast

[randrace]

Stage 4 cancer is generally not "curable." Even if they destroy every cancer cell, there is a good chance it will return. The good news is it's treatable, and people have lived a long time with stage 4. Contact other top cancer hospitals in your area and get second opinions on treatment.

[CaptainAustrali]

Make sure to ask / seek out clinical trials, as Immunotherapy is an emerging strong direction in cancer research and treatment, where basically they supercharge the immune system and cells that hunt cancer in the body, making the cancer more visible to them.

Cancer is a mutation, and often goes unchecked by the body's defense mechanisms - I can only say anecdotally knowing someone who had advanced cancer - stage 4, metastasized to lungs and liver, he had a life expectancy of weeks and survived several years.  Yes, he's deceased now in his early 60s, but he lived a lot longer than would have .. at one stage his "terminal" cancer had shrunk 80% and was considered tentatively to be "in remission".

It's worth keeping hope, even if it's just for overall mental health & wellbeing.  Make the most of the time you have.