Why is Cancer so Scary

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Why is Cancer so Scary?

I talk to people about cancer nearly every day so I’ve almost gotten used to it. But I know the look that people have when they’re first diagnosed – that dazed, far-away look of fear and the realization that nothing will ever be the same again. Even people who aren’t personally touched by cancer are so scared of it that they can barely say the word.

I’ve been thinking this week about why cancer seems to be in a class by itself in terms of the fear it generates even though other diseases can be equally horrific.

Part of it is historical imprinting. A Time Magazine article in 1931 put it this way: “…when cancer flourishes in a body, and the body begins to waste away, the pain passes description. Only drugs, fortitude of soul or aversion to suicide will keep the patient alive during the few months that a flourishing cancer allows him.”

My grandparents probably saw cancer in this light. I’m sure they shuddered whenever the word was mentioned. Kids learn fear by observing their parents’ faces.

Today, treatment cures many cancers. And those who can’t be cured often enjoy many years of quality life, with excellent control of pain and other symptoms. In spite of this, cancer still scares the hell out of most everyone.

I think it’s the combination of factors that makes cancer so scary. 1) We know we’re all at risk because it affects so many people. 2) Cancer is unpredictable in that two people with the same diagnosis can have very different outcomes. 3) We don’t always know the cause and people sometimes get blamed – or blame themselves - for causing their cancers. 4) Treatment is disruptive at best and awful at worst. And, 5) cancer still kills way too many of us.

Please don’t read this as my saying that my disease is worse than your disease. I don’t think that’s true nor would it make for an especially uplifting conversation. The reason I write this column is to make cancer a little less scary by talking about the scary stuff.

From the Ithaca Journal, April 3, 2008

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