h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is so much more information available on the internet today about cancer than there was 2 1/2 years ago. It's really been very useful to read about the different types of cancer, the treatments and the support groups that are available.

Didn't realise until yesterday that there are over 200 different types of cancer, each requiring a different treatment. There are at least 48 different types of chemotherapy. 300,000 people are diagnosed as having cancer each year in the UK. 1 in 3 people are expected to get cancer at sometime in their life.

Phoned several of the support groups yesterday and they are going to send literature to me about Gastrointestinal Cancers, Carboplaitin Chemotherapy, dealing with hairloss, diet for the cancer patient, and how to talk about cancer. I have to get my mum talking about it this time. Talking is apparently one of the best theraputic treatments for cancer.

A few useful UK links that I have found are:

http://www.cancerbacup.org.uk/index.shtml
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/
http://medweb.bham.ac.uk/cancerhelp/indexs.html
http://www.icnet.uk/
http://www.mariecurie.org.uk/

I have a friend that works for pharmaceutical company and she told me that they have a long list of cancer drugs that are just going to clinical trial and that the outlook is very optimistic. Fingers crossed the treatment that mum will be getting over the next 4 months will keep her well for at least another couple of years, and by then the new drugs will be available.