Rush Limbaugh announces he has advanced lung cancer

[NNadir]

338. Well, yes...

...but if you reflect on it a bit, the largest cause of death is being born.

Cancer is not even close to being a single disease, and even among people who have cancers of a specific cellular type, ie, sclc, there are variances from individual to individual, and even within an individual.

The point is that one can extend one's life considerably with modern treatments and even not overly degrade one's quality of life significantly.

If I were diagnosed, I would search the scientific literature to determine my prognosis depending on the decisions I made. I did this for my sister-in-law when she got cancer, and currently she's in remission.

In the case of my mother-in-law who apparently was developing rapid melanoma - this is relatively common in elderly people near the end of life, and as you imply seldom ends up as a cause of death as other syndromes kill them first - I was able to convince the family that any treatment for melanoma would only exacerbate suffering.

I have no use for Limbaugh of course, and the sooner his pernicious mouth is permanently silenced, the better it is for decency and humanity, but I am merely stating the general case.