There was for him no consoling belief in a life after death. He died surrounded by his family, a man who had lived fully and who had understood the uses of hope. Never give up hope. You can fight for your life, even in the face of tremendous odds. Give yourself permission to hope, even in the face of all the statistics that physicians may present to you.
Statistics are only statistics.
They are not you. There is no such thing as false hope. I saw the truth of this in my father's experience, and in the experience of many other people with cancer who have far outlived their prognosis. He consciously uses hope as a treatment tool. In ancient times, when medical technologies were more limited, the physician's appreciation of the therapeutic uses of hope was much more refined than it is today.