Michele - I think that what they are saying is that if they could predict who would have a recurrance and who wouldn't, they would be much farther down the path of a cure and individualized treatment. They don't know why some people recur and others don't. Only that statistics show that if you have certain characteristics (e.g. larger tumor or more lymph node involvement) that stats show more people don't survive. My onc won't give me a prognosis. I only learned my related stats by doing a lot of research and looking at the Mayo site, which was IMO like asking several onc's their opinions. And that's all they are - broad brushed opinions.
I kind of view myself as someone that is planning on making the next round of stats better so that future patients have a better prognosis because I (and all of us) are in the "make it" group.
