One of the most frequently asked questions that follow receiving a cancer diagnosis never appears on FAQ lists: Why me? In a small space like this, I cannot begin to answer this question on its deepest, most profound level, nor is...
How can you think about and make important decisions about the kind of cancer care you want? What about other, often equally important, matters? This is where having that good and reliable information I have mentioned before comes...
In this two-part post, I tie together some ideas I introduced in earlier pieces, specifically encouragement to ask questions, to learn as much about your illness and its treatment as you want or need to know in order to understand...
My previous post on the dramatic changes that have taken place in cancer care over the past 30 years was longer than most I’ve written so far. I could have written a good deal more. Long blog posts tend to lose reader interest, ho...
When I reflect back on nearly thirty years of clinical experience in medical oncology, the most striking feature is how different our approach to cancer care is today compared to what I encountered when I entered into specialty tr...
When last we left the humoral theory of disease, it had survived the debunking efforts of Vesalius and Baillie. Black bile might not exist, but investigators found other body fluids besides blood, phlegm, and yellow bile to take i...
Humanity and cancer are old adversaries. The earliest descriptions of the disease appear in ancient Egyptian manuscripts, perhaps some four thousand years old. The author catalogued his experience with many kinds of disease and li...
Engaging the health care system often feels like travel to an exotic foreign country. The setting is unfamiliar, different from home comforts. Most of the people encountered are strangers. The smells and sounds are strange, too. T...
One fine, long-anticipated evening, you and your equally well-dressed partner settle into your plush red-velvet front row balcony seats. A hum of excited expectation fills the theater. The eye gorges on rich brocades and exquisite...
Hematology is the medical specialty having to do with the study and treatment of diseases of the blood and the organs that make blood cells; the word derives from the Greek “haima,” which has come over into American English as the...
Practically everyone remembers from high school that words ending in “ology” have to do with the study of something, joined to some Greek or Latin root word that specifies the subject. Biology is the study of “bios” or life, for e...
Clear and useful communication has been called “the heart of the art of medicine.” More than just being a pleasing rhyme, this expression conveys a vital truth. Effective communication provides the key that ignites the engine of s...