Not every cancer is the same
Understanding a patient's unique situation
The other wild card is that you can't know in advance how well someone will respond to a particular treatment. One of the things that makes cancer so mysterious and frustrating is that doctors can't predict how effective a particular treatment will be because patient response is so individual.
For each diagnosis and treatment option, the patient population responds along a bell curve, with the larger group of patients in the middle of the curve responding "typically," and a small group on either end who respond either much more positively or less well.
Many cancer patients like to set a goal for themselves of "beating the bell curve," because no matter what the general prognosis for the majority of patients with a particular diagnosis, some are going to fall on the side that beats the odds.
Understanding the need for patience and persistence
The person you're caring for may well turn out to be one of the patients who is quite responsive to cancer treatment, but unfortunately the only way to find out is to give it time. If a treatment doesn't work, it's still not reason to despair -- it's likely the doctor will have another approach to suggest.
Some doctors tell patients to think of their cancer treatment like a bag of tricks. For most types of cancer, doctors have a number of different treatment options they can try. If one doesn't work, they'll switch to another, and that just might be the one that does it. It can be hard to have patience and wait for positive results, but fully understanding a cancer prognosis will help you know how much room there is for hope.
