The Problem with the Cancer ‘Battle’

Article

The terminology surrounding the cancer journey is often associated with a “battle” and can misconstrue the experience of treatment.

Language is an important tool when it comes to living with cancer. The terminology used when referring to an individual’s experience with the disease can incite a range of emotions and can often be misconstrued.

Dr. Mark Lewis, of Intermountain Healthcare, is also a survivor. In a recent interview with CURE®, Lewis discussed why the use of the word “battle” can be polarizing when referring to someone’s cancer journey, and why sometimes the idea of opting to forego treatment is the bravest decision of all.

Transcription:

One of the problems I have with language around cancer is, whether patients choose or not, there's often a lot of talk about ‘battle.’

In fact, in almost every obituary I saw about Chadwick Boseman mentioned him battling cancer. You know, if you accept the fighting metaphor, that's great, but it's not for everybody. And what I don't like about it is it implies some lack of courage, or spirit, when patients either die, or, quite reasonably sometimes, if they choose not to pursue chemotherapy.

Sometimes I think the bravest decision I see is someone who, against the recommendation and pressure from their family, says, ‘You know what, I've listened to you, doc, I've heard about the risks and benefits. I just want to live my life, however long that's going to be, and I want to maximize its quality.’

That, in itself, is a very courageous decision, in my opinion.

Related Videos
For patients with cancer, the ongoing chemotherapy shortage may cause some anxiety as they wonder how they will receive their drugs. However, measuring drugs “down to the minutiae of the milligrams” helped patients receive the drugs they needed, said Alison Tray. Tray is an advanced oncology certified nurse practitioner and current vice president of ambulatory operations at Rutgers Cancer Institute in New Jersey.  If patients are concerned about getting their cancer drugs, Tray noted that having “an open conversation” between patients and providers is key.  “As a provider and a nurse myself, having that conversation, that reassurance and sharing the information is a two-way conversation,” she said. “So just knowing that we're taking care of you, we're going to make sure that you receive the care that you need is the key takeaway.” In June 2023, many patients were unable to receive certain chemotherapy drugs, such as carboplatin and cisplatin because of an ongoing shortage. By October 2023, experts saw an improvement, although the “ongoing crisis” remained.  READ MORE: Patients With Lung Cancer Face Unmet Needs During Drug Shortages “We’re really proud of the work that we could do and achieve that through a critical drug shortage,” Tray said. “None of our patients missed a dose of chemotherapy and we were able to provide that for them.” Tray sat down with CURE® during the 49th Annual Oncology Nursing Society Annual Congress to discuss the ongoing chemo shortage and how patients and care teams approached these challenges. Transcript: Particularly at Hartford HealthCare, when we established this infrastructure, our goal was to make sure that every patient would get the treatment that they need and require, utilizing the data that we have from ASCO guidelines to ensure that we're getting the optimal high-quality standard of care in a timely fashion that we didn't have to delay therapies. So, we were able to do that by going down to the minutiae of the milligrams on hand, particularly when we had a lot of critical drug shortages. So it was really creating that process to really ensure that every patient would get the treatment that they needed. For more news on cancer updates, research and education, don’t forget to subscribe to CURE®’s newsletters here.
Dr. Andrea Apolo in an interview with CURE
Dr. Kim in an interview with CURE
Dr. Nguyen, from Stanford Health, in an interview with CURE
Dr. Barzi in an interview with CURE
Sue Friedman in an interview with CURE
Dr. Giles in an interview with CURE