{"id":20942,"date":"2025-01-28T09:01:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T10:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=20942"},"modified":"2025-01-28T10:36:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T10:36:29","slug":"when-cancer-gets-in-the-way-of-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=20942","title":{"rendered":"When \u2018Cancer\u2019 Gets in the Way of Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some oncologists suggest that, for certain early cancers not at risk of spreading, the term \u201ccancer\u201d should be avoided.<\/p>\n

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A diagnosis is more than words on a page. It\u2019s everything that comes with it: the doctor\u2019s tone of voice, a gentle touch of the hand, the pauses left so the patient can digest the news. All of these details subtly impart how you should think about the label that you\u2019ve just been given.<\/p>\n

But one diagnostic word in particular threatens to derail any rational discussion of its meaning: cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Cancer\u2019 is just this panic word,\u201d said Laura Scherer, a social psychologist at the University of Colorado who studies how doctors communicate risk. Patients compare hearing the term to \u201cgetting hit by a truck, like they can\u2019t process anything that comes after,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kirsten McCaffery, a health researcher and psychologist at the University of Sydney\u2019s School of Public Health, added, \u201cThat \u2018cancer\u2019 label is kind of an anxiety bomb that goes off for patients.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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That\u2019s why some oncologists argue that, for certain early cancers that aren\u2019t at risk of spreading, the medical profession should do away with the word altogether.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the debate is the common breast cancer diagnosis DCIS, or ductal carcinoma in situ. The phrase, which describes cancer cells confined to the lining of the milk ducts, is somewhat of an oxymoron. The National Cancer Institute defines<\/a> cancer as cells that, if left untreated, will grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body; \u201cin situ,\u201d however, means limited to one place.<\/p>\n

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Some oncologists suggest that, for certain early cancers not at risk of spreading, the term \u201ccancer\u201d should be avoided.A diagnosis is more than words on a page. It\u2019s everything that comes with it: the doctor\u2019s tone of voice, a gentle touch of the hand, the pauses left so the patient can digest the news. All of these details subtly impart how you should think about the label that you\u2019ve just been given.But one diagnostic word in particular threatens to derail any rational discussion of its meaning: cancer.\u201c\u2018Cancer\u2019 is just this panic word,\u201d said Laura Scherer, a social psychologist at the University of Colorado who studies how doctors communicate risk. Patients compare hearing the term to \u201cgetting hit by a truck, like they can\u2019t process anything that comes after,\u201d she said.Kirsten McCaffery, a health researcher and psychologist at the University of Sydney\u2019s School of Public Health, added, \u201cThat \u2018cancer\u2019 label is kind of an anxiety bomb that goes off for patients.\u201dThat\u2019s why some oncologists argue that, for certain early cancers that aren\u2019t at risk of spreading, the medical profession should do away with the word altogether.At the heart of the debate is the common breast cancer diagnosis DCIS, or ductal carcinoma in situ. The phrase, which describes cancer cells confined to the lining of the milk ducts, is somewhat of an oxymoron. The National Cancer Institute defines cancer as cells that, if left untreated, will grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body; \u201cin situ,\u201d however, means limited to one place.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20944,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20945,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20942\/revisions\/20945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}