More Cancerous Fruit

A Google search for “tumor grapefruit” turns up 214,000 matches.

These include:

“Grapefruit-sized tumor removed from giraffe's head in a historic operation…”

“The tumor was a round, grapefruit-sized, well-circumscribed mass weighing 1500 g and measuring 18 cm in its greatest diameter …”

“A man who had a grapefruit-size pituitary tumor removed 10 years ago has a full life and a newly adopted baby boy…”

“…they commonly grow gradually to the size of an orange or grapefruit.”

Granted, some of these hits refer to the anti-tumor properties of consuming grapefruit, but changing the search terms to “tumor grapefruit-sized” still turns up almost a thousand matches, including:

“An 11-year-old California boy who nicknamed his brain tumor 'Frank' has been doing fine since a surgeon removed the grapefruit-sized tumor last year …”

And then there are the peas. A search for “pea-sized tumor” turns up about 25,900 matches.

I’m still trying to find a psychiatrist who can explain oncologists’ fixation with fruit.

OK, it's not a cancer comparison, and it's not a comparison to fruit, but this headline certainly caught my eye:

Baby as small as pen when born to go home

The problem is, I keep envisioning a baby the size and SHAPE of a pen. How weird is that? And forever after, this little girl will be known as "the pen baby."

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.

Comments

[Spinning Liz]

I suspect part of the problem is that tumors are often described in centimeters, and most Americans go totally blank at anything metric. Saying the tumor was 14 cm. doesn't have quite the same visual impact as saying it's the size of a grapefruit. I often describe my axillary lymph nodes in terms of nuts: one was the size of a walnut; a smaller one was more in the range of a pecan, etc. Still in the shell, I must add.

But it's not just food, sports metaphors are big too. Golf ball, football, bowling ball, etc. Liz Holzemer's soon to be realeased book, Curveball: When Life Throws You a Brain Tumor, is about a meningioma the size of...you guessed it...a baseball! (I'm not generally a big fan of cancer books, but I'm really looking forward to reading this one, by the way.)

[jessica]

There was a stand-up comedian on one of the late (pretty late, so probably pretty poor) shows last night whose act consisted of a strong, angry rant against grapefruit. He carried on about the bitterness and the grapefruit's ability to ruin the flavor of any fruit it comes into contact with. All except for the lovely grape, coincidentally, his favorite fruit, whose skin and density resists the mighty grapefruit. There were bits of personification to follow as the grape and the grapefruit battled and bantered. (It wasn't very funny--- and at that time of night I seem not to care...) Then, to my surprise, he wrapped with the conclusion that God created grapefruits for the sole purpose that doctors would have a way to describe tumors. (!) Just had to dig up this old post and share...

[jeanne]

That is GREAT. Thanks for letting me know.

Jeanne