President Jimmy Carter is battling cancer and the latest news is very encouraging. Visible cancer cells are abscent from his latest scans. Reading the press coverage I see stories that say his cancer is “gone” and I cannot help thinking about how the press talks about Type 2 diabetes.
…celebratory responses built around Carter’s cancer being “gone” are in real danger of swamping an accurate understanding of cancer biology and of what many patients experience as they cope with cancer or cancer recovery.
Don’t we say the same thing when people talk about “reversing” Type 2?
‘It doesn’t mean that there is no cancer in his body; it means that there is no indication that they can find cancer for the present,’ said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society, who stressed he was speaking about cancer in general.
Isn’t this the unspoken thought that accompanies any report of Type 2 being delayed or reversed?
Most doctors actually frown on the term “cure” with respect to cancer. Sure they talk about the 5 year “cure rate” but what they really mean is remission. And when pressed basically everyone will drop back to using the term remission where complete remission means that there are absolutely no detectable signs of cancer in an test that is or can be performed.
Sadly what remission doesn’t mean that your cancer is gone. In many if not most cases cancer is still lurking there. But for people like Jimmy Carter they may face a future where it is unlikely that they will die of cancer. In that sense remission can achieve of state of control where you have a higher (or even very high) change of not dying from cancer.
So in that sense there are some real parallels between cancer and diabetes. Our diabetes can be controlled so that we have a high chance of not dying from it. It can be said to go into remission and the outward signs can disappear. But once you have it, it is always there lurking. And evil monster looking over our shoulders. Once you have it (at least today) you cannot be cured. It cannot be reversed. And it cannot be prevented. It can only be controlled.
With respect to the term “gone”, it’s my personal opinion that the more accurate term should be undetectable or undetected. ie a false negative test result. a failure of modern technology to discern the cancer
When I first heard the news of it being “gone” I thought of the Type 2 issue about so-called reversal. Then, as l listened more there was one news person who said the cancer wasn’t gone but rather that the cells were not present. I appreciated that clarification.
