What if Lance Armstrong.......

I am hopeful the people that read this entry won't misinterpret the point. I do not condone what Lance Armstrong has done, nor do I profess to be an expert on his career or life. I did attend one game last season at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, but I haven't even watched his interview with Oprah, although I am sure I will at some point.

I have heard some of the recent arguments saying that you "can't be against him, or you are against fighting cancer and all that his foundation stands for". A few years ago, I probably would have argued on one side or the other of this issue. But today, I just don't care. Instead, let me pose a different question that doesn't seem to be getting any attention.

What if the Performance Enhancing Drugs that he took positively impacted his cancer treatment? Did he recover more quickly from treatment and even increase his odds of survival because he took these drugs? Could other cancer patients have similar outcomes if they follow the same "Performance Enhancing Drugs" regimen? Testicular cancer is one of the most curable forms of cancer according to the American Cancer Society. Survival rates range from 95-99% based on how prevalent the cancer has become. So I get that my thoughts shouldn't be given too much weight, but as a parent of a cancer survivor, what if he "helped himself" by taking performance enhancing drugs?

I am even willing to step away from my parent of a cancer survivor self and think more in the adult realm. What if your coworker struggling with Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer, Brain Cancer, etc. followed Lance's treatment protocol (including the use of PED's)? Would they be able to miss less days of work? Be more productive on the job? Beat the disease all together and return to their life a lot sooner following treatment?

There are TONS of medical trials out there. I didn't see any out there studying the effects of Performance Enhancing Drugs on survival rates. If you can find that on the National Cancer Institute's listing of more than 12,000 current clinic trials, I will gladly praise you publicly. But, I'm not getting my hopes up. Maybe some of Livestrong's money can be channeled to a study such as this. In the end, it is sad that another great sports story has come to an ending such as this. But, how he lead his life doesn't have any impact on how we go forward from here. Or does it? I guess time will tell.