One of the most helpful articles I read on this topic was "The Median is Not the Message" by Stephen Jay Gould, a scientist who lived 20 years after his diagnosis with a cancer that has an 8 month median survival rate. If people throw stats at you, you need to ask the date of the study, how many patients were in it, and who those patients were. If you are ER negative and most of the patients in the study were ER positive, the results really don't apply to you. As my doctors and I discussed my treatment plan, I learned to read the studies and look at the results for the subgroups of people closest to my age and tumor type. Statistics can help you decide between two treatment plans, but they can't predict your outcome.

Third, surround yourself with a strong network of support. Every cancer patient needs good support, but the more aggressive the cancer, the more types of support you will probably need. When the prognosis isn't good, you hope to be in the cancer battle for the long haul. So far the long haul for me has been nine and a half years. I knew my situations was looking good when my doctors started worrying more about my cholesterol count than cancer.