Our carefree life hits a brick wall when we are diagnosed with prostate (or any) cancer. At that point we worry, we research, and we make a decision to treat or monitor our cancer. Then we worry about whether we made the right decision. Next we worry about what the future holds. Sound familiar? A cancer diagnosis injects adrenaline into our worry glands. Our inclination to worry becomes hyperactive, and things that were not even on the radar before cancer …
If it can’t get any worse, it can only get better—whatever “it” may be. In the case of societal acceptance and public perception of proton beam therapy—especially with respect to its use for prostate cancer—it’s been pretty bad. Based on negative media coverage, insurance denials, and lack of even a mere mention by many physicians, a newcomer would have to conclude that proton beam therapy is the black sheep of cancer treatment technology. It’s too expensive, eternally experimental, and never …
For a cancer survivor there is no better way to start the day than with news of a revolutionary new method to diagnose, treat, or maybe even cure cancer. And as it turns out, there is no shortage of such news. I used to think game-changing breakthroughs would be rare, but recently I had begun to wonder. So I checked. I did a little googling, mostly but not exclusively for prostate cancer (my favorite), and restricting results to just the …
In the wild and wacky world (WWW) of diagnosing, discussing, and destroying (DDD) cancer, it’s easy to slide down the slippery slope (SSS) from focus to fuzziness (FFF) in our understanding of what the heck we’re actually even talking about. We have created our own lengthy lexicon of acronyms, buzzwords, and catch-phrases—our ABCs of cancer—but is this lingo really helpful? If we were teenagers texting a well-placed LOL or OMG, then OK, no problem. But we are adults talking about …