Yeah, as Jim Morrison said, "No one gets out of here alive."My mother participated in a cancer study in 1996, I don't recall any guarantees or promises that were offered except she was going to get a treatment or she might get a placebo, they did guarantee it would make her sicker from the possible side effects to determine dosage levels. Study participants were instructed that this was a study, it was not a cure and whether they got better or worse that at some point it would be discontinued with no further treatment. Yes, they agreed up front they were guinea pigs, they were all terminal and knew it. My mother got very ill and she died with the idea that if she could just get one more treatment it might cure her. Patients in studies tend to believe this is the golden pill or treatment and forget the rest. You can bow up and be pissed the rest of your life or you can move on. It is all your choice. We are all terminal.
That being said, humans live with hope. Hope that surpasses physical limitations. And that is why the next treatment is going to work.
I think it comes from the same well of hope and strength that is used by soldiers who's bodies are worn ragged from work and exhaustion and hunger but they march the next five miles anyway because that is more important than the failure of the body.
I gave up cigarettes in 2018. I have had two recent annual scans (part of a lung cancer study that I am in.) Zero cancer, no nodes, no cells looking cross-eyed. I have may have the genetic gift of no cancer in my family. So, I will die one day but I am going to make this day a little better, if I can. And that is, I think, what drives the hope of cancer patients. And it is certainly not my job to tell them their hopes are in vain. Nor do I think I would be helping them by saying such a thing.