The perception of cancer

When we hear the word cancer our minds automatically tend to jump to the worst case scenario. We jump to thoughts of death and sadness, loss and hopelessness. Our minds don’t start to seek out the data and research side of cancer, until our hearts have accepted that it is really happening to us. Once our hearts have accepted the reality of the situation, the analytical data can become more of a comfort than a daunting process. Cancer research data can create a more concrete perception of each individual cancer experience; it opens up new avenues for ones mind to assess the coming events.

Why is cancer research important? How do we protect ourselves from cancer? For years I saw this research but never really retained the data. The emotional value of cancer research always struck a chord within me. Now, the technical side-- where evidence was revealed and statistics demonstrated the credibility of the study-- that was where my eyes tended to glaze over. I didn’t want to delve into the details of such a depressing subject.  Yet life has a way of changing a person’s priorities.

Cancer can affect us all, whether it is with emotional or physical trauma, costly treatments and medications, or loss of life. Cancer has altered my life twice in my twenty-three short years. The first time was when I was six years old. At that time I was too young to think about the technical side of cancer. All I knew was that I was the closest bone marrow donor match for my sister Kara and that I would do anything to help her. The first transplant gave her a year of remission (when the doctors can’t find any more cancerous cells) before the leukemia came back. Kara fought a two and a half year battle with leukemia and at four years old, she lost. I had lost my best friend, and it damaged my heart and soul so profoundly that my family was concerned the change would become permanent. I protected myself by pretending cancer was just a story where the facts have no meaning and the story sometimes makes ones eyes water.

When I was twenty, reality reared its ugly head and reminded me that cancer was real and it was about time I faced it. My mother called to share the results of her mammogram (a test to check for abnormalities in the breast). With a second opinion from a breast cancer specialist, she was officially diagnosed a week later. My mother who had been through so much with the loss of my sister was now going to fight her own battle against cancer. Her doctor recommended a mastectomy (a surgical procedure where surgeons remove the breast tissue) and multiple preventative measures to reduce the chance of spread or re-occurrence. While it opened many old wounds to hear my mother’s diagnosis, it also empowered me to protect myself. I strove to protect myself not only from the emotional effects, but now from the physical effects as well. I chose to rely on the comfort of facts, rather than the emotional response that came naturally.

Whether you are a patient, family member, a friend or even part of the hospital staff, one could find oneself asking questions. Why this person? Why now? Why this way? What is cancer? Every day more research is published telling us about another thing experts suspect causes cancer. Cancer could be a hereditary malfunction in our genetic code such is the case with breast cancer, lung cancer and kidney cancer. It can be a symptom of exposure, such as lung cancer, mouth cancer and liver cancer. It can be radiation, BPA (Bis-phenol A) in plastics, filler ingredients in cosmetics and food or even physical trauma. There are so many known causes, but cancer can be a tricky devil to pin down because there are still some causes yet to be identified. Some cancers can be the result of multiple factors. In these cases one may never know which factors were the true cause. Some examples are Leukemia or CUP (cancers of unknown primary). So perhaps one is asking the wrong types of questions.

While it would be nice to always know the true cause it is not always necessary. There are multiple ways to treat cancer. In response to the research on cancer causes, a multitude of research is published on keeping exposure to dangerous variables to minimum, organic options for our hygiene and diet and staying physically fit. Certain cancers respond well to chemotherapy (the use of medicines or drugs to treat cancer), while other respond to radiation treatments where x-rays or gamma rays are used to shrink tumors or kill cancerous cells. Sometimes the cancerous cells can be removed from the body to cure the patient. Oftentimes when the removal process is used, preventative measure are taken to help lower the chances of re-occurrence.  For example doctors may use hormone replacement medications or steroid regimens as a preventative measure for breast or ovarian cancer patients. Perhaps the right question is, how do we fight it?

While the emotional side of cancer had always been what I had related to, the research side was now a huge comfort to me. It gave me a structure to lean on and hope that felt real. It made me ask questions of myself. How will I protect myself? How will I protect the children I plan to have? And most of all, it made me open my eyes to the fact that I had run from cancer my whole life. I had pushed it into a deep dark hole, locked it away and pretended it was all a bad dream. Well, it was back now and there was nowhere to hide, so I faced the hardest question yet. How can I help? Pamphlets of comforting data that never glossed over the seriousness of the situation filled the waiting rooms, and I read all that I could. There is something to be said about knowing the possibilities of tomorrow. Whether the possibilities looked promising or bleak, the fact that I knew them brought comfort. While I had no idea whether my mother would survive her fight against cancer, I knew the possibilities and they were beginning to look bright. 

My mother is a fighter through and through, and she is now a proud breast cancer survivor. I stayed by her during the most challenging of times, and my research kept me strong. Now I had a whole new question to ask myself. Could I have been there for my mother emotionally if I had not known the facts? The answer….no. It is impossible for an ostrich to see the world with its head buried in the sand. Instead of hiding from cancer perhaps I should being sizing up my enemy so I will know how to protect myself from it. Is there such a thing as protecting ourselves from cancer? Or do we just identify our enemy and face it head on?