system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
When does cancer become terminal?

People with cancer survive with an operation or some sort of medical treatment but when the doctor says it's terminal, when exactly does that happen and what does it mean? Is it possible to survive after the cancer has been termed as terminal?
gpt
Quote: *Terminal illness or end-stage disease is an incurable disease that cannot be adequately treated and is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient.* 

Cancers typically become terminal when the growth of malignant cells impedes major organ function or have reached a level of metastasis (widespread growth throughout the body) where surgical removal is no longer an option and chemotherapy or radiation are either unsuccessful or would only further weaken the patient's body, and the only option left is to make the patient comfortable as they die (how long this takes is entirely based on the particular type of cancer and case specifics).

There have been many cases where a prognosis of "terminal" has been reversed due to aggressive treatment via new techniques or simply by virtue of the tumor growth stopping or reversing on its own, but **this is not common**. Often the media makes major news out of people surviving Stage 4 cancer, but these should not be considered statistically relevant cases, rather as remarkable ones due to various special circumstances.