{"id":6408,"date":"2014-09-15T08:18:51","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T13:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=6408"},"modified":"2021-09-12T22:35:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T03:35:03","slug":"lets-end-cancer-military-metaphors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/15\/lets-end-cancer-military-metaphors","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s End Cancer Military Metaphors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The first notable use of illness described in military terms actually came from John Donne, the 16th<\/sup> century \u201cNo man is an island\u201d poet. He described his terminal illness as a \u201ccannon shot\u201d and a \u201csiege that blows up the heart.\u201d In 1864, Louis Pasteur (probably trying to get government funding for his research) used invasion imagery to introduce his new germ theory to the French public. And in 1971, President Nixon publicly declared \u201cwar\u201d on cancer<\/a>, calling it a \u201crelentless and insidious enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, for more than 40 years, when you or a friend or a loved one gets a cancer diagnosis, out trot all sorts of war clich\u00e9s as \u201cthe battle begins.\u201d Your cancer is an evil entity that invaded your body. Your team of doctor\/soldiers provides the big guns: surgery, chemo, and radiation therapy. Your surgeon (who could be John Wayne under that mask) confidently says, \u201cLooks like we got it all.\u201d But later that same day, during the second part of the classic one-two punch, your oncologist or radiation therapist proposes what sounds like a scorched-earth approach to \u201cwipe out every last cancer cell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your friends talk about how you\u2019re doing in your battle with cancer, putting up the good fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One writer, a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, in an essay entitled \u201cMilitary Strategies Used in the War on Cancer<\/a>,\u201d rather imaginatively separated the different phases of cancer treatment into military maneuvers. Surgery, he felt, could be compared to aerial bombardment and artillery fire, ensuring all enemy troops are killed and removed. By comparison, radiation and chemotherapy recalled the poison gas attacks of World War I (interestingly, a poison gas used then was nitrogen mustard, which later became one of the first cancer chemotherapies). He then gets more sophisticated: the newer enzyme-inhibitor drugs, such as Gleevec for leukemia, will \u201cslow the enemy\u2019s advance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the newest cancer cell-specific monoclonal antibodies (Rituxan) and antibody-drug conjugates (Adcetris) he likens to Navy Seals teams and smart bombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind-body approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re into mind-body medicine, you\u2019ll find plenty of creative visualizations originally created by the late Dr. O. Carl Simonton, MD. They encourage you to view your cancer cells as \u201cweak, confused invaders,\u201d and guide you to \u201cmobilize your army of strong white blood cells to attack and destroy your cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our current visualization guru is Belleruth Naparstek. Her CD, A Meditation to Help You Fight Cancer, \u201cshows how to cope with cancer with a narrative that imagines tumors shrinking and fighter cells battling and triumphing over cancer cells as a protective cushion of love and support surrounds the listener.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside your window, friends and colleagues, fists held high, pink ribbons fluttering in the breeze, are marching against cancer. Unfortunately, too much of the money raised is directed to more and more chemotherapy, too little toward prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, of course, if you\u2019re defeated you\u2019ll be remembered as a good soldier, losing your long battle against cancer, but putting up a good fight to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe ready to fight\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This Health Tip was prompted by a small but interesting article published in the British Medical Journal<\/em> <\/a>responding to ads created by the fundraising drive of Cancer Research UK (CRUK). This well intentioned organization declared on billboards throughout the UK: \u201cBe full of hope. Be courageous. Be ready to fight,\u201d adding it was \u201cdetermined to beat cancer.\u201d In press releases, CRUK referred to its cancer research funds as a \u201cwar chest,\u201d to some of its work as \u201crecruiting viruses for cancer battle,\u201d and to transforming  fundraising women in pink into an \u201carmy who run, dance, and sing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CRUK\u2019s ad agency apparently admitted all this was \u201cdesigned to have cancer quaking in its rubbish boots.\u201d (And, no, despite considering myself widely read I don\u2019t know what \u201crubbish boots\u201d actually are.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essayist Susan Sontag (who herself had breast cancer) wrote about this in her now-classic Illness as Metaphor<\/em><\/a>. Metaphors, she felt, created prejudice. A cancer survivor is a winner, the dying victim a loser. The military metaphors surrounding cancer ultimately confer blame on the victim for not fighting hard enough. But many people, she felt, aren\u2019t by nature fighters. She wondered if a poorly chosen metaphor could make these peaceful souls feel responsible for both their cancer and their fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another brilliant writer with breast cancer, feminist Barbara Ehrenreich, has written of her contempt for the cheery world of corporate-sponsored, pink-ribbon festivities. She, too, decries the endless victim language connected to breast cancer and the nonstop positive attitude among doctors, an approach that leaves little room for the patient to express the normal emotions of fear, shock, isolation, and sadness. For some powerful writing, try her Welcome to Cancerland website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

British writer and inveterate unapologetic smoker Jenny Diski relates in this month\u2019s London Review of Books<\/em><\/a> what went through her mind when she learned she had inoperable lung cancer. In this masterful article,  Diski concludes with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing I state as soon as we\u2019re out of the door (of her doctor\u2019s office): Under no circumstances is anyone to say that I lost a battle with cancer. Or that I bore it bravely. I am not<\/em> fighting, losing, winning or bearing. I will not personify the cancer cells inside me in any form. I reject all metaphors of attack or enmity in the midst, and will have nothing whatever to do with any notion of desert, punishment, fairness or unfairness, or any kind of moral causality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what this boils down to is that unless you really like the military metaphor, it\u2019s time to shed it when it comes to cancer. It\u2019s potentially harmful to those who have enough on their minds without being reminded by their oncologist-generals and pink-ribboned fellow troupers to be strong soldiers and keep up the good fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my own opinion, the military metaphor was a mistake from the start because it implies an enemy to do battle against. But is \u201ccancer\u201d one unique enemy for us to do battle against? Cancer is not ISIS. Cancer is a multiplicity of diseases with a variety of causes, a variety of clinical presentations, and a variety of (often very successful, life-extending) treatments. Because of this, there will be no single \u201ccure\u201d for cancer in which cancer becomes, like the bubonic plague, an interesting historical event. Cancer is an incredibly complex puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t wage war against puzzles. You solve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be well,
David Edelberg, MD<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first notable use of illness described in military terms actually came from John Donne, the 16th century \u201cNo man is an island\u201d poet. He described his terminal illness as a \u201ccannon shot\u201d and a \u201csiege that blows up the heart.\u201d In 1864, Louis Pasteur (probably trying to get government funding for his research) used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,195,3,314],"tags":[241,1669],"class_list":["post-6408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-diseases","category-knowledge-base","category-l","tag-cancer","tag-military-metaphors"],"yoast_head":"\r\nLet\u2019s End Cancer Military Metaphors<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Outside your window, friends and colleagues, fists held high, pink ribbons fluttering in the breeze, are marching against cancer.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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