What You Need to Know.....
Fighting cancer is a joint effort, a shared responsibility between you and your medical team. This partnership is based on honesty, communication, education, and a willingness to do your part. The medical team assumes responsibility for planning the most effective treatment and giving therapy and support. You have to assume responsibility for working on proper nutrition, proper physical exercise, and the proper mental attitude.
Cancer used to be thought of as a terminal illness. However, people are learning to view this disease in a different light. They are learning to live with a chronic disease, to manage symptomatic health problems and treatments, and to live as normal a life as possible. When people hear the word cancer, they may think of suffering, disability or hopelessness. Except in unusual situations, that is not the reality of cancer. Something can almost always be done. If you want to know the truth about cancer, talk to your oncologist and members of your healthcare team. Knowledge and understanding can help control your fears about cancer. Fears can be resolved when you understand what to expect: treatments, potential problems, realistic expectations of any discomfort, and how to deal with them.
A Tangle of Emotions
How you react to your cancer diagnosis depends on your personality. It is not unusual to be flooded with different emotions in a relatively short period of time - shock, anger, grief, feelings of loss, and feelings of isolation. These emotions can be completely overwhelming. Try to remember you have experienced emotions similar to these before. You may not recall them initially, because they are so over overwhelming. Almost all persons diagnosed with cancer go through an emotional upheaval. To feel what you are feeling is normal.
The treatment of cancer with chemical agents is called chemotherapy. Chemotherapy involves the use of medicines to destroy or slow down abnormal cell life, often - though not always - when they are dividing. (Note that healthy cells are affected as well. This will be explained later.) Chemotherapy medicines are taken intravenously, intramuscularly, by subcutaneous injection, or by mouth. Your doctor might recommend chemotherapy for several reasons:
- to cure a specific cancer
- to control tumor growth when a cure is not possible
- to relieve symptoms such as pain
- to shrink tumors before surgery or radiation therapy
- to destroy microscopic metastases after tumors are removed surgically
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last updated June 20, 2001
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