Maligant cancer for 3 years?

Question

Is it possible that someone could live with a maligant tumor on the bone for 3 years, without treament. I heard it can kill you in like 7 months without treatment.

Thanks

Answer 1

Yes it's true. Some stay there for years before being active and destructive. But, when they do they take very little time.

Answer 2

It depends on the type of cancer . . cancer is an umbrella term to describe over 200 different types . . so cancer is classified by cell or location within the body (bone cell, brain cell, lung cell, etc) and because cancer is also a progressive disease the patient is staged according to how far along the cancer has progressed (from tiny cell to large tumors) . . and to complicate things further cancer tumors are also graded according to how abnormal they look under a microscope (low to highly aggressive). All these things factor into how long it takes for a specific cancer type to grow. Some cancers are very slow growing and can take 20 or more years (some skin cancers are slow growing) while other types of advanced, high grade tumors are aggressive and grow within months, weeks, or even days.  So . . it would depend on what type of malignant tumor on the bone you are referring to . . is this a primary cancer or a secondary metastasis . . there are also different types of bone cancers . .  so . . it may be possible . . as some malignant tumors can lay dormant for an undetermined amount of time and than relapse.  It's possible . . but it depends on many different factors.