Not sure my husband received cautious care.

My husband was diagnosed with stage one squamous cell lung cancer in June of 2006. We lost our beloved Bill March 10, 2007. I miss him so.

I still struggle with the path my husbands treatment took. I feel that a one size fits all approach is used for lung cancer patients. Maybe driven by the lack of hope attitude regarding lung cancer in general. Chemotherapy is given without question it seems, then radiation. I still wonder if much careful consideration or effort is put into monitoring each individuals progress throughout treatment. How is the individual tolerating the treatment? I don't understand why all the treatments seemed to make him worse. Never better.

How profit driven are these clinics? After all is there really any accountability for the chemotherapy or radiation clinic? They get paid if a patient benefits from their treatment or not. If the patient lives or dies. I fear that if we knew the true number of cancer patients who die during or after these standard "one size fits all" treatments we would be shocked. What other business operates this way? Maybe If these centers were required to refund the insurance money and the money to family members of cancer patients who died under their care they would take more caution with each patient. Could that possibly help find a better form of treatment? Or even a cure. Better yet, the chemo therapy and radiation centers should be required to donate the profits made from patients they did not help directly to cancer research. Research for a cure. Not a profit driven machine with a marginal success rate! It has been made easy for these clinics (businesses) to fail their patients. After all the statistics for lung cancer patients are in their favor. What are these survival ratings we are handed based on? Lack of good cautious closely monitored treatment? Lack of research? A system of treatment that has become the standard for better or worse? Why not some accountability? Maybe that would generate the attention and funding needed for more lung cancer research leading to a cure.

I am frustrated with insurance companies in the United States. They seem to be the ones who determine what treatment a patient receives and when. Isn't that actually a form of denying treatment? Vulnerable cancer patients with little time on their side are forced to jump through hoops the insurance companies have created. You must do A and B before you can have C. By then, for many cancer patients, it is to late. C should have been their first option or at least among their first options. But everyone still gets paid handsomely for the "standard" efforts. The insurance companies with large premiums and co-pays. The clinics with high profits.

If I sound angry it is because I am. I started this message in response to another email that talked about the bias and prejudice lung cancer patients face especially if they smoked.

Yes, my husband smoked. Yes, he and I both felt the judgments that were made about him. He did quit for eight years but just could not stay away from tobacco. I wish with all my heart that more attention would be given to lung cancer research. It is an awful disease with little chance of survival.

Bill was 67 years old when he died. He fit the "older man life long smoker" profile we were told about. Could it be that is all the doctors or treatment center saw. I so much wanted them to see the dear and handsome man that took very good care of his family. To remember he was in good health with a strong heart and body. I wish they knew that he had done everything life asked of him without complaints. He was the head of our family, our sentinel and the love of my life. A human with human frailties.who, at age 67 needed help from the medical community. Help with a disease that eventually took his life. He was judged and also written off as old. He was so important to us we couldn't imagine he would not be equally important to those who took an oath to do no harm.

Yes lung cancer patients who were smokers face more judgment than compassion in many cases.

I so much would like to help bring attention to the lack of research and help for lung cancer patients. Please let me know where to start

In loving memory of Bill