"Should I take Chemotherapy?"

Recently a friend of mine related to me that her sister had found out she had cancer but refused to take chemotherapy.

Chemo is a very grueling, humiliating, and taxing thing. There are different types of chemo, but all of them have essentially the same purpose: poison the cancer while also, unfortunately, poisoning the "healthy" cells around it.

This makes you feel sick during chemo and make you feel sick while your body is trying to recover from the chemo that you just took. And that cycles for however many months you're supposed to be taking chemo for. By the past couple months of my treatment, I dreaded chemo more than anything else I've ever dreaded in my life. It sucks.

However, while some people may say that chemo (and radiation) are bad for you, that's not the case. Those are the people who can't stand the process and so they justify their unwillingness to take chemo by saying it doesn't work. The survival rate between someone who does not take chemo is,depending on the chemo, either bigger or substantially bigger than someone who does take chemo. That's really just how it is.

Depending on the cancer involved and what chemotherapy is being used, survival rates can increase by 30% to 50%. Don't willingly gamble your life on these odds. (Archie Bleyer, paraphrasing, Cancer in Adolescents and Young Adults)