'Planet Cancer'

While searching for something entirely different (doing research for a client on customizable social and professional networking platforms) I tripped over 'Planet Cancer', a social network that describes itself irreverently as:

...a community of young adults with cancer in their 20s and 30s. A place to share insights, explore our fears, laugh, or even give the finger to cancer with others who just plain get it. So, welcome to Planet Cancer - we're glad you're here. Well, not really. But you know what we mean... Better than a Lithium lick in the corner of your room.

Some may be shocked or offended by discussion threads such as "Anyone still find they 'love' their meds?" or "Anyone else set their 'expiration date'?" but it's hard not to feel the love and mutual support that participants bring to this community. The latter post began as follows and kicked off a lively discussion.

Ever since I have survived cancer I have told a few people that I know when I am going to die. I usually say it is in my mid-40s when the cancer comes back. I am 29 right now. I accidentally let this little theory slip to my mother the other day and it really freaked her out...

OK, as a parent, I can see that. Check it out... or better yet, recommend it to someone you know who may be suffering and needs some support. Also check out the site's 'top ten' lists, which include "Top 10 Reasons Being Bald Rocks" and "Top 10 Ways to Disrupt the Waiting Room". Laughter really can be the best medicine...

Theories of Cancer

Check out this thought-provoking piece in the Times of London Literary Supplement yesterday by bladder cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, reviewing two new books on the intricacies of the scientific, medical and public policy debates about (or rather, the struggles over) how to think about the origins of cancer [links added].

One advantage of being a long-time cancer survivor – besides the obvious – is that it provides a front-row seat in the auditorium of ideas about the disease’s causation. Theories go in and out of fashion over the years, paradigms shift this way and that, and the patient is viewed differently by the medical community depending on which idea is currently on top.
...
Two new books expose and explicate the ongoing social contest that is at the heart of our shifting understanding about cancer. They are both important and deserve to be read together. Devra Davis’s book [The Secret History of the War on Cancer] examines the historical forces at work when doubt is cast on the environmental evidence. Phil Brown’s book [Toxic Exposures] explores the opposing social movements that are struggling to rescue this evidence and to bring about public health policy change based on it.