All Cancers Are Alike But They Are

Most Discoveries Even Today Are A Combination Of Serendipity And Of Searching.

A Breast Cancer Might Turn Out To Have A Close Resemblance To A Gastric Cancer. And This Kind Of Reorganization Of Cancer In Terms Of Its Internal Genetic Anatomy Has Really Changed The Way We Treat And Approach Cancer In General.

Cancer's Life Is A Recapitulation Of The Body's Life, Its Existence A Pathological Mirror Of Our Own. Susan Sontag Warned Against Overburdening An Illness With Metaphors. But This Is Not A Metaphor. Down To Their Innate Molecular Core, Cancer Cells Are Hyperactive, Survival-endowed, Scrappy, Fecund, Inventive Copies Of Ourselves.

In 2005, A Man Diagnosed With Multiple Myeloma Asked Me If He Would Be Alive To Watch His Daughter Graduate From High School In A Few Months. In 2009, Bound To A Wheelchair, He Watched His Daughter Graduate From College. The Wheelchair Had Nothing To Do With His Cancer. The Man Had Fallen Down While Coaching His Youngest Son's Baseball Team.

It Remains An Astonishing, Disturbing Fact That In America - A Nation Where Nearly Every New Drug Is Subjected To Rigorous Scrutiny As A Potential Carcinogen, And Even The Bare Hint Of A Substance's Link To Cancer Ignites A Firestorm Of Public Hysteria And Media Anxiety - One Of The Most Potent And Common Carcinogens Known To Humans Can Be Freely Bought And Sold At Every Corner Store For A Few Dollars.