When is cancer not cancer? This is an unexpected question that has perturbed the world of cancer treatment in recent years, especially the world of prostate cancer treatment. WSJ: A growing number of doctors are advocating what seems like an unusual view: that low-grade prostate cancers that grow very slowly or don't grow at all shouldn't be called cancer or carcinoma. The reason, they say, is That word scares mentheir families, and sometimes even their doctors, instead of pursuing a wait-and-see approach with careful monitoring, seek more aggressive treatment than the patient needs, leaving the man with debilitating side effects. It is.
Name changes are not unheard of. Certain other forms of thyroid, cervical, and bladder cancer have been reclassified, also to avoid scaring people about cancers that are less likely to spread. “The word 'cancer' evokes a tremendous amount of anxiety and fear,” says Dr. Laura Esserman, professor of surgery and radiology and director of the Breast Care Center at the University of California, San Francisco. -Breast cancer risk renamed. “My patients think that if I don't do something tomorrow, they're going to die. That's actually not true.”
