What is CUP cancer? Symptoms, life expectancy and the treatment situation of ‘cancer of unknown primary origin’
- To treat cancer effectively, doctors need to know where it began; in rare cases, the source cannot be identified, like for Kyle Bagenstose’s mother
- CUP cancer, which has no discernible origin, is much harder to target and treat correctly, making it one of the hardest for patients to survive
Cancer ruthlessly dragged down my mother this spring – less than two months from diagnosis to death.
Just six months ago, she and I danced to The Beatles at my wedding, not a care in the world. At age 72, in a time of life when many people start to slow down, she seemed to be gathering steam: active in social clubs, volunteering for local organisations, smacking the tambourine in the church band on Sundays, chasing her four grandchildren around.
She wasn’t shy about going to the doctor. She never missed her annual mammogram, and messaged our family doctor about nearly every nick she felt in her body.
In January, about four months before she passed, one of those little pains started growing into a big one. There was an ache in her chest, and it was getting worse. She was losing weight. At first, the doctors thought it was an inflammation of the cartilage around her ribs – eight weeks of healing should do the trick.
But it wasn’t getting better. By the end of February, she was nearly bedridden in pain. One afternoon in early March, a sudden, searing sensation in her chest caused her to jolt upright, then head for accident and emergency.