All Cancers Are Alike But They Are

I Think The Way We Think About Cancer, The Way We Treat Cancer, Has Dramatically Changed In The Last Century. There Is An Enormous Amount Of Options That A Physician Can Provide Today, Right Down From Curing Patients, Treating Patients Or Providing Patients With Psychic Solace Or Pain Relief.

Cancer's Life Is A Recapitulation Of The Body's Life, Its Existence A Pathological Mirror Of Our Own. Susan Sontag Warned Against Overburdening An Illness With Metaphors. But This Is Not A Metaphor. Down To Their Innate Molecular Core, Cancer Cells Are Hyperactive, Survival-endowed, Scrappy, Fecund, Inventive Copies Of Ourselves.

In 2005, A Man Diagnosed With Multiple Myeloma Asked Me If He Would Be Alive To Watch His Daughter Graduate From High School In A Few Months. In 2009, Bound To A Wheelchair, He Watched His Daughter Graduate From College. The Wheelchair Had Nothing To Do With His Cancer. The Man Had Fallen Down While Coaching His Youngest Son's Baseball Team.

A Breast Cancer Might Turn Out To Have A Close Resemblance To A Gastric Cancer. And This Kind Of Reorganization Of Cancer In Terms Of Its Internal Genetic Anatomy Has Really Changed The Way We Treat And Approach Cancer In General.

When You Immerse Yourself In Medicine You Realise That Hope Is Not Absolute. It's Not That Simple.