I can’t know for sure. I think it’s one of those things that is almost impossible to understand until it has happened to you.
It would depend a lot on the likelihood of treatments working and how brutal the treatments are. Some chemos are much worse than others. Female cancer chemos tend to be very punishing.
When I hear a cancer reoccurred I usually jump to it’s probably in more than one part of the body, but luckily that is not always the case.
More recently they are changing the schedule and doing some chemo and then taking a break and then some more for some cancers. The idea is more about keeping the cancer at bay while keeping the body in a healthier state than when it’s overloaded with chemo poison. This is for cancers that can’t be cured.
I think if I had young children I would be willing to suffer much more to stay alive. I see how parents worry about leaving their children, I’m sure I would feel the same. Not only worry about them, their safety, their sadness from the loss, but also I would want to see them grow up.
When I was very young (under 25) I think I would have wanted to give up faster than I would as an older adult. When I was young the idea of going through horrible illness from cancer treatment was terrifying to me. Now, I think I would handle it better, but who knows.
When my neighbor’s nephew got cancer in his early 20’s he went through horrible treatment. The cancer was one that has very low survival rates. A few months after the treatments the cancer was back or still there, whatever the term was. The doctors said they could try the treatment again. He didn’t want to do it. He desperately did not want to do it. His mom begged and pleaded. I told my neighbor I would let him choose. I couldn’t understand why the same treatment would work this time. My neighbor said it had less than a 20% chance of working. Eventually, his mom “won.” He did the treatment, and died shortly after it.
Mind you, I was one of the jellies who was all in favor of tying down that teenager and forcing her to take cancer treatments just like the court ordered in that one case a few years ago, but that instance the treatment was very likely to work.