The Truth About Cancer

"The Truth About Cancer" is the title of a documentary set to premiere on PBS April 16.

I've been hearing about the doc, and someone just sent me a press release, which I haven't read yet, but I'm intrigued, because this is actually a pretty good question--What IS the truth about cancer?

Better yet, what is YOUR truth about cancer?

Answers please, either as a comment below, so that everyone can read them, or in an e-mail to me, if you want to keep it private: jeanne.sather@gmail.com

Comments

[Dee]

Hmm, there are a lot of ways to answer this question.

First, I am an academic who teaches that history is viewed differently by different cultures. For example, the "history" as experienced by white slave owners is vastly different than the history as experienced by the slaves.

Another example lies in how the local environment is viewed by different cultures. I just read an article, written by a colleague over thirty years ago, that stated that the Inupiaq Eskimo in Northwest Alaska perceived "non-empirical phenomena" like ghosts and spirits, but which mainstream American culture might deny.

I could give lots of other examples here, but my point is: What do the producers mean by "truth"? What is "true" and "false"? I'm getting into philosophical questions here, I guess. So, my question about the documentary is whose "truth" are they representing? That of the cancer patient? That of the medical establishment? There are a lot of different "truths", so how can this one documentary present "THE truth"?

But you asked what is MY truth about cancer. In this case, I could answer the question with regard to how I EXPERIENCE cancer. In this case, I have a whole blog about it and it would be hard to summarize here. I'd start with saying that it's a pain in the ass; it's caused me a lot of anxiety, depression, some nausea and other unpleasant (but mostly tolerable) physical symptoms; it's been expensive; it's caused a lot of worry and angst among my friends and family; it's caused issues with my relationships.

But, my experience with cancer has also been full of a lot of support from family, friends, colleagues, and several strangers who have gone out of their way to help me, support for which I am grateful. Then, there's that cliche about how cancer is helping me to be a better person - which has been the case for me. Cancer is also teaching me to appreciate the little things in life and to not take things for granted. I think you (Jeanne) have talked about this cliche before - but I can't remember how you phrased it. Something about how you wish you could've been taught this lesson without having had cancer? About not wanting to wish this on anyone?

Well, I've written too much, but hopefully, someone can follow up on this thread of thought . . . it'll be interesting!

[Carver]

I am struggling with how to answer this question. I am lucky so far in that I don't currently have active cancer. My truth for a long time was that I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I didn't think my chances were very good. I turned down the only FDA approved treatment for stage III melanoma (interferon) because it statistically it hasn't been shown to improve survival odds although it does delay recurrence time in a percentage of patients. My truth is I turned down a treatment because I thought I'd stand a better chance getting strong after surgery, running, enjoying life, etc.

My truth is I feel like I'm whining when I talk about this because so far I've been lucky. I haven't recurred but the darker side is I have ended up with chronic pain and peripheral neuropathy. I have many of the symptoms people who do interferon get even though I didn't do the treatment. That could be why I remain disease free. I may have had my own personal autoimmune response which has compromised my quality of life but is also helping keep me from having a recurrence.

I am aware of my good fortune at one level but at another level pain sucks. Pain management sucks. Seeing 5 doctors for follow up for various issues sucks. I have always stopped to smell the flowers, plant them, enjoy the natural world but cancer has made me have less energy to plant them and nurture them.

I value friendships I've made with other cancer patients. That's perhaps the only positive thing that has come out of having cancer for me. I could go on and on but I feel like a whiner when I do because thus far, knocking on wood, I'm one of the lucky ones.

[Dee]

Carver, I turned down treatment, too, right after my bilateral mastectomy in November. I wasn't convinced that I had cancer elsewhere in my body and for the same reasons as you. I felt that I could keep cancer from recurring better if I approached it from a position of strength, rather than being run down from additional chemotherapy and suffering long-term side effects like heart damage, a weakened immune system, and fatigue. Once I found out it recurred, I then had to do the treatments. I feel lucky, too, when we discovered I still had cancer, it was bone and skin mets, which seem highly treatable and easy to track. I think it's okay to whine, though, because it's only through whining or shouting very loud (like Jeanne's new slogan - Cancer Patients: Living Longer, Shouting Louder!) that we can get the medical establishment to figure out how to alleviate long-term side effects.

[katrina]

the truth...

Cancer made me a widow at 34.

It is the boogieman. It can get anyone at any time.

[jeanne]

Thanks, everyone. I'm still thinking about what my truth is. Even after all this time, I'm not sure.

[John]

When I made my first trip to the cancer center, I noticed the solidarity and comradery between the patients. There was no disease, no sterotypes, no pitty. We were people, human beings with a simularity and that was all. Truth is, people do treat you different. They do mean well. But that look or stare you get can peirce through you like a hot butter knife at times. Cancer is not our life, just a part of it.

[jeanne]

John--that is definitely a cancer truth. Good one. We are there for each other, because we wouldn't want to have to go through it alone ... So we do unto others.

[Mimi Rothschild]

Dear Ms. Smith,

The documentary "The Truth About Cancer" is an irresponsible, harmful betrayal of cancer patients throughout the world. While I feel compassion for Linda Garmon's terrible outcome and support her right to use filmmaking as a therapy for her grief, it is simply morally reprehensible for her and for PBS, WGBH, the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation to support this untrue and misleading piece of propaganda. Please consider the withdrawal of this documentary to avoid any further irreperable harm and immeasurable damages from incurring. At the very least, the title of the film should

be changed to "My Experience with Cancer" or "One Person's Truth About Cancer." To characterize this grief stricken film as "The Truth About Cancer" is unconscionable.

The film allegedly cites facts and figures that are supposed to give the viewer the answer to "What is the truth about cancer?" The title states unequivocally that the film contains "the truth" about cancer. This is misleading and deceptive because the film does not contain the whole story about cancer by any stretch of the imagination. This film contains several people's sad experiences with cancer, but it is sorely lacking any absolute truths or even universally recognizable facts about cancer.

The PBS website relays the producers thoughts by stating "This film makes it clear that it's very much a part of American culture to believe that if you fight hard enough, you can beat cancer. But when it comes to having metastatic cancer, your survival depends on the biology of your cancer cells, and whether they are susceptible to state-of-the-art treatment," says Garmon. "In sharing my husband's story and the stories of other patients, I hope to shed light on this important truth."

What truth? That her husband tried only the traditional medical treatments and that he died of cancer. While I am very sorry for her tremendous loss and for the death of Jamie in the film, their experience does not contain any truths that could be applied to anyone else. It was their experience.

Is the truth perpetrated in this film that if all your treatment consists of is surgery, radiation and chemotherapy and you have pancreatic cancer that you will probably die? Aside from the fact that this is totally not true for everyone, by stating it as a truth, it depletes us of one of the most important healers of all time, which is hope.

It was clearly true for Linda Garmon's husband that his cancer was not beaten. However, as far as the audience knows, he only pursued one form of treatment out of the many alternatives that are available. To ignore the multiple strategies that are successfully employed to defeat cancer in a film that is entitled "The Truth About Cancer" is irresponsible and a betrayal to the viewer who has been set up to believe there is some truth contain therein by the title. The film's silence regarding any scientifically proven effective ways of treating the diseased body is misleading by omission. Dr. Ryan states in the film that there are "only three ways we have to fight cancer...surgery, chemotherapy and radiation." This is deplorably untrue.

Many cancer survivors attribute diet, exercise, nutritional supplements, herbs, prayer, acupuncture, laughter therapy, and a host of holistic treatments to their total remission of cancer. In a film that claims to contain "the truth about cancer", isn't it a woeful betrayal to all of those patients and families who are fighting cancer to be told they have only three choices for treatment, when that is simply and unequivocally untrue?

The film, The Truth About Cancer" should not be distributed by a trusted and respected broadcaster like PBS and WGBH. The audience has come to depend on the accuracy and reliability of the programs you choose to show us. This film is not only inaccurate but it is damaging because it shatters hope uncessarily. To shatter hope and to present only one approach to cancer treatment in a film called "The Truth About Cancer" betrays the 15,000 people diagnosed daily with some form of cancer. We expect more from PBS.

Mimi Rothschild

Chief Executive Office, Learning By Grace, Inc.

www.LearningByGrace.org

[jeanne]

Wow!

I haven't seen it.

I didn't want to see it.

I didn't like the title, and was afraid that it would not tell a story that I would see as the truth about cancer, and from what Mimi writes, that seems to be true.

I did "borrow" the title to ask my readers to share their personal "truths about cancer," and as you can see, many of them did. I have yet to post my own.

Thanks, Mimi.

Jeanne