Unfortunately, I have some bad news. Total Biscuit seems to have had a cancer relapse...

[Erttheking]

Snip

Ok, I made the donation and the local amount was taken out of my bank account, so it looks like it worked perfectly.

Thanks again for showing me that.

 

[NiGHTSJOD]

This is a really sad day. I hope he lives as well and as long as he can.

At least, that's what he tweeted last year. I have no idea if the situation changed and the costs from the current treatment are proving to be too much.

https://twitter.com/totalbiscuit/status/461864103821459456

I know that in the U.S. cancer treatment costs can run quite high, and health insurance carriers are prone to catagorize newer cancer treatments as "experimental" so they don't have to cover the expenses. For example, there's a new "miracle" treatment for cancer at Duke University that involves injecting patients' tumors with a modified version of the Polio virus to jumpstart the patients' immune system (there's an interesting 60 minutes episode on this if anyone is interested). The treatment is currently being reviewed by the FDA, but even if it gets approved, it will likely be a long time before insurance companies opt to cover the procedure, unfortunately.

And to answer your question about donations, I'm not sure how Bowel Cancer UK operates and if they accept US credit cards or PayPal or whatnot. Most major charities do. If that's the case with this charity, then your credit card/bank will make the appropriate currency coversion on the back end (rather than the charity making the conversion, which is usually a no-no).

I would definitely be interested in seeing that.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

First kitty0703, now TotalBiscuit?

There is no justice. Undeserving innocents have the gift of life robbed from them while scum like Justin Bieber and the like poison the world.

And people wonder why I've suddenly turned so bitter in recent years.

 

[Exley97_v1legacy]

This is a really sad day. I hope he lives as well and as long as he can.

At least, that's what he tweeted last year. I have no idea if the situation changed and the costs from the current treatment are proving to be too much.

https://twitter.com/totalbiscuit/status/461864103821459456

I know that in the U.S. cancer treatment costs can run quite high, and health insurance carriers are prone to catagorize newer cancer treatments as "experimental" so they don't have to cover the expenses. For example, there's a new "miracle" treatment for cancer at Duke University that involves injecting patients' tumors with a modified version of the Polio virus to jumpstart the patients' immune system (there's an interesting 60 minutes episode on this if anyone is interested). The treatment is currently being reviewed by the FDA, but even if it gets approved, it will likely be a long time before insurance companies opt to cover the procedure, unfortunately.

And to answer your question about donations, I'm not sure how Bowel Cancer UK operates and if they accept US credit cards or PayPal or whatnot. Most major charities do. If that's the case with this charity, then your credit card/bank will make the appropriate currency coversion on the back end (rather than the charity making the conversion, which is usually a no-no).

I would definitely be interested in seeing that.

Here are some links for the 60 Minutes piece:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/polio-cancer-treatment-duke-university-60-minutes-scott-pelley/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/using-polio-to-kill-cancer-60-minutes/

And more reading on the subject from Duke University:
http://www.cancer.duke.edu/btc/modules/research3/index.php?id=41

 

[BlackJesus]

Damn. I hope he pulls through.

 

[rcs619]

This is a really sad day. I hope he lives as well and as long as he can.

At least, that's what he tweeted last year. I have no idea if the situation changed and the costs from the current treatment are proving to be too much.

https://twitter.com/totalbiscuit/status/461864103821459456

I know that in the U.S. cancer treatment costs can run quite high, and health insurance carriers are prone to catagorize newer cancer treatments as "experimental" so they don't have to cover the expenses. For example, there's a new "miracle" treatment for cancer at Duke University that involves injecting patients' tumors with a modified version of the Polio virus to jumpstart the patients' immune system (there's an interesting 60 minutes episode on this if anyone is interested). The treatment is currently being reviewed by the FDA, but even if it gets approved, it will likely be a long time before insurance companies opt to cover the procedure, unfortunately.

And to answer your question about donations, I'm not sure how Bowel Cancer UK operates and if they accept US credit cards or PayPal or whatnot. Most major charities do. If that's the case with this charity, then your credit card/bank will make the appropriate currency coversion on the back end (rather than the charity making the conversion, which is usually a no-no).

I would definitely be interested in seeing that.

Here are some links for the 60 Minutes piece:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/polio-cancer-treatment-duke-university-60-minutes-scott-pelley/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/using-polio-to-kill-cancer-60-minutes/

And more reading on the subject from Duke University:
http://www.cancer.duke.edu/btc/modules/research3/index.php?id=41

Yeah, that program is looking super, super promising.

I believe they tested it on 80 individuals and around 40 wound up surviving. A 50% survival rate doesn't sound great, until you realize that that form of brain cancer is 100% fatal normally. It's still far too early in to say if this treatment is truly safe or viable for wide-scale use, and it's going to take years of refinement and testing, but the initial results are damned promising

I don't have the source, but I believe I saw another story where some other group was trying to use a modified strain of HIV to fight leukemia.

This is the future right here though, re-purposing some of the worst killers in human history to fight *for* us against other killers. There is potential for targeted viral therapies beyond just cancer too. In theory, you could modify them to infect and kill all manner of harmful bacteria as well, and honestly, with how the misuse of antibiotics has caused new drug-resistant diseases to pop up, we really need something more precise. Antibiotics have their place, just like chemotherapy, but they shouldn't be the only line of defense.

I really do wish Totalbiscuit the best though. My Mom died from brain cancer and my Dad lost a kidney to kidney cancer. Seriously, fuck that disease.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

So sad to hear that his cancer came back. I may not be a PC gamer, and I think I've agreed with ONE of his game reviews ONE time, but I still like to watch his channel now and again to hear his well-spoken arguments on bigger issues, and... admittedly... his voice kind of calms me down. Strange, I know.

Coincidentally, I was just watching a YouTube video condemning (and rightfully so) The Komen Foundation and their disgusting misuse of donations intended for breast cancer research. I only bring that up because the video contained a link to a website that helps people intelligently pick charities to which they can donate, ensuring that money goes to reputable organizations that act as good stewards of donated funds, rather than predatory scumbags like Komen. Should anybody feel moved to donate to a charity in TB's honor, check it out:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

 

[Lightspeaker]

Damn. I hope he pulls through.

He literally can't "pull through" on this, sadly.

Barring some sudden medical advance its more a question of time and how long he can fight it for... :-\

 

[llubtoille]

To me he's always come across as a lone logical professional among a bunch of bickering politicians and journalists, I hope he's still around for many years to come because the shoes he'll leave will be hard to fill.

 

[Dragonbums]

Is there seriously nothing he can do about it? Maybe there is an operation? He can ask for some money to be pulled together for it?

I don't know how you can honestly live with something like that. It's scary. Scary because it can happen to any one of us. But surely they can put it back into remission right?

After finding out that Kitty0706 died of Leukemia, I can't bear to go on his channel and watch his videos anymore. I rarely watch TB but sometimes when I'm lacking in LP content I go listen to him as background noise.

I can't be able to do that if he truly passes away. There is something horribly haunting and depressing hearing the voice of a person who passed away still talking like they are fine.

This sucks. I hate hearing stories like these....

I hope that he doesn't give up hope and there is still a chance. But if not... then I wish him and his family the best.

 

[LordLundar]

Unfortunately, no, there is nothing he can do to beat it. The Cancer calls have metastasized which basically means they're in the blood stream now. He can get treatment for what's there to prolong his life but beyond that...

He's not giving up though and is bound determined to be an outlier so that's a plus, but it's not a matter of beating it so much as surviving it for as long as possible.

 

[Pseudonym]

That is bad. I have nothing particularly intelligent to say about it but I do like to watch the guy from time to time and I want to say something. Best of luck to him, obviously.

 

[MiskWisk]

Is there seriously nothing he can do about it? Maybe there is an operation? He can ask for some money to be pulled together for it?

I don't know how you can honestly live with something like that. It's scary. Scary because it can happen to any one of us. But surely they can put it back into remission right?

After finding out that Kitty0706 died of Leukemia, I can't bear to go on his channel and watch his videos anymore. I rarely watch TB but sometimes when I'm lacking in LP content I go listen to him as background noise.

I can't be able to do that if he truly passes away. There is something horribly haunting and depressing hearing the voice of a person who passed away still talking like they are fine.

This sucks. I hate hearing stories like these....

I hope that he doesn't give up hope and there is still a chance. But if not... then I wish him and his family the best.

It's not really something he can pull through from. The issue is now the cancerous cells are being pumped through his body and spreading the cancer everywhere now. Really, the only thing that can be hoped for is that the tumours don't get anywhere important while the ones in the liver respond well to the treatments. Really, all medical science can do now is delay, delay, delay.

OT: This sucks really. TB is a great commentator and critic. I might not always agree with his opinions and his presentation doesn't appeal to everyone but damn it all, he is probably one of the best games critics in the medium. He keeps to his standards and has never let anyone push him around and it is really saddening to hear that he's not going to be around longer.

Here's to hoping he beats the odds and that we'll still be listening to him five years down the line.

 

[Mikeybb]

Just want to echo the sentiment here in thread that this is a tragedy and my heart goes out to him and his family.

I sincerely hope his determination and willpower find a match in his resilience and that he gets to fulfill his intent to hold out as long as possible and defy that expectancy average.
Here's to Mr Bain being an outlier among outliers.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

To me he's always come across as a lone logical professional among a bunch of bickering politicians and journalists, I hope he's still around for many years to come because the shoes he'll leave will be hard to fill.

Most particularly the shoes of "husband" and "father". I really enjoy his YouTube content, but my connection to the guy is ultimately pretty meaningless. What stings the most is he's only 31 years old. He has a young family. He has pets. He has a broad network of friends.

There will always be other YouTube content creators. For these people, there is absolutely no replacement for John Bain.

This is why people usually have an easier time understanding and empathizing with "small scale" or "micro" tragedies where a single person dies as opposed to "macro" tragedies where hundreds or thousands die. It's easier to imagine the network of loved ones and lives touched and the ripple effect of that person's passing. If we tried to do that for every large scale tragedy we'd go insane.

 

[marioandsonic]

Man, fuck cancer.

I don't really have anything else to add, as I never really watched TB's reviews, but I really wish we found a cure for cancer. Of course, that's much easier said than done.

 

[rcs619]

To me he's always come across as a lone logical professional among a bunch of bickering politicians and journalists, I hope he's still around for many years to come because the shoes he'll leave will be hard to fill.

Yep. Totalbiscuit and Jim Sterling are the only two voices in games media that I actually trust. Their methods and overall tone differs, but they've both shown themselves to be on the right side of consumer's issues and on the general problems plaguing the game industry.

Plus, by all accounts they both seem like genuinely cool guys, and family-men on top of it all.

Is there seriously nothing he can do about it? Maybe there is an operation? He can ask for some money to be pulled together for it?

I don't know how you can honestly live with something like that. It's scary. Scary because it can happen to any one of us. But surely they can put it back into remission right?

It's inoperable cancer. About the only thing they can do is blast it with as much chemotherapy and radiation therapy as they can without killing him, and hope that they shrink it back down, or stall its spread. Barring any sudden medical advancements, it *will* eventually win out. All TB (and anyone with inoperable cancer) can do is fight for as long as they can.

The one "bright" side to this is that he's got at least a few more years, and he'll have his health for a large part of that. When my mom came down with brain cancer, it popped up in the part of her brain that controls balance, so she was completely bedridden the last 2 and a half years of her life. They only gave her 6-8 months though, so she managed to fight it better than most.

And, like TB said in his post, most people who get this sort of cancer tend to be older, with less efficient immune systems. Given his youth, and the income his career provides, it's entirely possible he can live longer than the 2-3 year average.

Just, try to use this sort of thing as a life lesson. This could happen to any of us. Young or old, successful or not, cancer doesn't care. So try to live the best life you can, while you can.

Seriously, fuck cancer. Make that mutated bastard struggle for every single inch, TB.

 

[sanamia]

Back when TB was first diagnosed an uncle of mine got the same diagnosis as TB in the same week.
That Uncle decided to run of and hunt down every esoteric bullshit he could find, because he didn't want to do the chemo and operations TB went through.

After basically poisoning himself with Hydrogen cyanide for a year he finally went back to a doctor... Unsurprisingly that Uncle is now at <4 months to live. With metastasis in his liver, lungs and brain.

Even if it's not a cure I hope TB responds well to his Chemo and is an outlier. My uncle did drag the life expectancy down. Also the uncle is old so maybe the time that man wasted chasing esoteric crap is more average time for someone like TB who is young and actually wants to fight to the last.

And on a cynical note: some of the people reading about TB's condition will die before him. The difference is he has a more likely time frame. But anyone can die in a stupid accident at any time.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Cancer has taken away many people in my personal life so I know what this is doing to his family. Being a personality on the internet is irrelevant, give the man his space and wish him the best; there's nothing else to do really. :/

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

[
Many of us, perhaps most of us, have had cancer and defeated it without knowing. Usually, the body's immune system will detect "foreign" influences and destroy them. This may have been over a period of days or even hours. Cancer is simply a natural mutation that runs right out of control, and in some cases, becomes a tumour (or tumours) that require operations, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and/or other treatments.

All of us in fact. All of us produces potentially cancerous cells each year... it's just that many times all that needs to happen is a malfunction of the immune system itself that stops from identifying the cells for destruction. Depending on diet, genetics, or environmental factors, all of us produce varying numbers of damaged cells and produce varying degrees of immune rsponse. Beating cancer often isn't so much as targeting the cells but basically making the body learn how to deal with it itself.

All of us 'beat cancer' repeatedly, each year. It's just that some people are predisposed to either not fighting it so well, or simply producing more damaged cells, or a simple, horrible, twist of fate that allows a cancerous cell to go unmolested by the body's immune system. Hence why a decent diet that supports the body's immune system can often evade cancer alltogether. Eat crap over your lifetime, expect a higher chance of cancer. Kind of a downer, really.

(Edit) Still, best of luck. But 'inoperable' doesn't mean 'unbeatable' ... it just means exactly what it says, 'inoperable' ... which tends to be the most inefficient means to deal with cancer in the first place. It's better to have the body generate its own immune response than merely directly operate on tumours of the body. Or you'd need to go into surgery constantly, which is ultimately worse for your health than improving the body's own systems of homeostasis. Hopefully non-invasive treatments jumpstart the immune system.