Seeker, the following is from the site pasted below...I think:
"Prognosis is clearly related to several key features of a woman's cancer, most importantly stage and grade. Stage defines the extent of disease. For the overwhelming majority of women with ovarian cancer, the disease is advanced. Survival for Stage III or IV disease is 15-20% at five years. When fortunate enough to find the disease when it's confined to the ovary, survival for Stage I disease is 80-85%. Grade describes the pattern of growth as seen under the microscope. Grade 1 cancers have a pattern of growth similar to that of normal tissues, and these cancers grow more slowly and are more likely to do well. Grade 2 and 3 cancers have a very disordered pattern of growth and consequently, are more unpredictable in their behavior. The woman who has Stage 1 Grade 1 disease is likely to be cured by surgery alone."
I studied this matter of Patsy's alleged stage IV ovarian cancer several years ago myself. I could find nothing to prove that her cancer wasn't stage IV. I assume that the Grand Jury could have looked into this matter with their subpoena powers if they felt it was relevant to the murder investigation, which, it probably wasn't and isn't. Of course, if you were convinced that she couldn't have survived stage IV for so long, then you might be justified in believing that, once again, Patsy lied, and that must mean she killed her daughter. My guess is that in order to be thus convinced you'd have to be a medical professional; preferrably an oncologist, working at NIH with those experimental treatments that Patsy, once again, alleged she underwent.
Not only don't we know that Patsy had stage IV ovarian cancer, we don't even know whether she was in the least bit sick, or has had any recurrences--I think two have been reported thus far? Recurrences with advanced ovarian cancer are common according to the literature.
To recap the above quote, in case you didn't read it, the prognosis depends on basically three disease-related factors--the stage of the cancer; the grade of the cancer; and the histology (cell type). Response to treatment varies widely among patients--some do well, some do poorly, some respond moderately.
The American Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (according to the literature) uses the TNM classification: T=extent of tumor; N=lymph node involvement; M=metastasis. They grade malignant tumors as follows: 0= carcinoma in situ (usually can be cured with surgery); I, II, III, varying degrees of more extensive disease--greater tumor size and/or spread of cancer to NEARBY lymph nodes and/or spread of cancer to nearby organ/s. Type IV= spread of cancer to another organ or organs (presumably not nearby). In Patsy's case she had a golf-ball size tumor behind her pelvis (according to her) that (according to her doctor) may have developed since her radical hysterectomy. She doesn't say which organ, if any, that tumor had attacked. They used it as a marker during the chemo. She says she was informed by the same doctor at the same time that she had stage IV, rather than the stage III that the Atlanta doctors had diagnosed, based on a finding of cancer in lymph nodes under her collar bone, far removed from the site of the primary tumor. Don't we all trust in what our doctors tell us.
As for comparing Gilda's illness with Patsy's illness (Gilda was one of my favorites and I was very saddened by her death, as were many), as I stated before, and will repeat, we don't know how advanced Gilda's cancer was when it was first diagnosed. It's not uncommon for ovarian cancer to be misdiagnosed, as it was initially in Patsy's case, and to be well advanced before a proper diagnosis is made. Since we don't have access to Gilda's medical records, nor Patsy's, we can't say for certain that either of them had stage IV cancer, according to your own observation. Gilda was Gilda and Patsy is Patsy; two separate and distinct individuals, each with her own unique response to cancer treatment. Maybe prayer does help in some psychosomatic way.
I've found many sites on the web which report that women have survived stage IV ovarian cancer for many years after having been diagnosed with it and treated for it. Of course, I have no way of determining the veracity of these reports.
My two cents...
http://www.sleh.com/sleh/Section004/index.cfm?pagename=Ovarian Cancer
