Barbara Chernow

What is the appropriate reaction when a friend is diagnosed with cancer? Should you be sympathetic, optimistic, questioning? How do you handle your own fears—those you feel for your friend and, particularly as you grow older, those that evoke the possibility of personal loss and even the reality of your own vulnerability?

Respect the right of a patient with cancer to decide against treatment or to reach a point where fighting the disease is no longer worth the suffering.

Any diagnosis of cancer is frightening, but the functional, psychological and cosmetic effects of oral cancer treatment create an additional layer of fear. Even patients who are treated successfully will require care throughout their lives. This disease exacts an unending physical and mental price.

Fortunately, cancer awareness has increased, and so have treatment options. One of my goals is to encourage patients and families to maximize their use of available resources to minimize post-treatment challenges and discomfort.

People caring for others often neglect their own health. In doing so, they violate a basic rule: You cannot take care of someone else if you do not first take care of yourself.

Despite educational and graphic antismoking ads and public service announcements, many young people still find the attraction outweighs the risks. How do we convince them otherwise?

Patients and caregivers benefit from informed and sensitive decisions about treatment options. How do you provide the best possible care while successfully balancing personalities and emotions?

Once the initial shock of a malignant diagnosis is absorbed, patients and families need to practice due diligence to ensure the best possible and most appropriate care.

More than 50 years after her mother's first diagnosis, Barbara begins to reflect on the many lessons that came from a family member battling oral cancer.